‘Neumos Workers Are Winning’ — Another Seattle independent union effort is taking shape on Capitol Hill

According to the group’s newsletter, their latest meeting with management was a win for workers

By Ella Avital, UW News Lab

Employees of Capitol Hill’s longest-running and most significant live music venue and its sibling bars sent a set of demands to management this spring in pursuit of increased wages and safety guarantees. The group of workers from bars Neumos, Barboza, and The Runaway are rolling out a public unionizing campaign.

A letter of demands signed by over 75% of staff was sent to Neumos management identifying the most urgent issues that employees faced. The set of demands were separated into four pillars: compliance with industry standards and laws, fair pay, safer staffing practices, and a commitment to consistent communication.

“On any given weekend we can have upwards of over 1,000 people in the building; we need people to manage that,” Neumos security staff member Ozi Goldstein said. “It was security that raised those concerns and our concerns were ignored, then someone ended up getting severely injured and we decided to move things along because these are urgent issues that had to be dealt with sooner rather than later.”

The efforts are part of independent union activity rippling across Seattle and Capitol Hill’s business communities. Last week, CHS reported on workers from the Sea Creatures restaurant group including Capitol Hill steakhouse Jeffry’s arriving at a tentative agreement over hours, pay, and benefits.

The Neumos demands noted consistent payroll mistakes going uncorrected, staffing constraints preventing employees from receiving meals and rest breaks and safety hazards going unaddressed. Neumos Workers United requested that the hourly pay be raised from minimum wage, not only to ensure employees can make a livable wage in Seattle, but also to retain competent security staff, they said.

Neither the owners nor management of Neumos returned repeated requests for comment for this story. Organizing workers have said they have met with ownership over the issues.

Hundreds, maybe thousands of independent union efforts have formed amid the nation’s increasingly fluid and fracture labor landscape.

Instead of traditional, sweeping national unions like the Teamsters or SEIU, recent years have seen a surge in independent unions — local, self-contained worker organizations formed inside specific workplaces. The efforts have helped boost overall union membership across the country. The momentum has shifted from traditional blue-collar manufacturing toward healthcare, retail, and educational services. In Seattle, many of the efforts are focused on restaurants, bars, and clubs.

One of the main points in the Neumos letter of demands are concerns for worker safety.

Kai Lewis is a part of the security team at Neumos and has played a large role in the Neumos Workers United movement.

“I love and adore every single one of my coworkers,” Lewis said. “I have an incredible sense of community. I know people that live and work all over Capitol Hill in different businesses. The sense of community I have with my neighborhood is stronger than that I’ve ever had in high school or college.”

Lewis said that without enough security on staff in a given night, employees cannot take meal and rest breaks Goldstein said that a bar fight between patrons on Super Bowl Sunday resulted in a bartender – who was trying to break up the flight – ending up in the emergency room. Goldstein said this incident drove them to move forward with their coalition more quickly.

According to Goldstein, who also works security, the ideal number of security staff would be six to seven employees and oftentimes, management schedules two to three security staff.

“That was a motivator to start accelerating our organizing movement because we had been raising this issue and this wasn’t just an issue for the Super Bowl,” Goldstein said. “This is an issue any time security staff is reduced.”

@neumosworkers

Neumos Workers United started a social media campaign, releasing their mission statement and set of demands to the public, and marching in Seattle’s May Day parade for International Workers Day. Bartender Charlie Kapps explained that the support they received not only boosts morale for workers but also puts pressure on management.

“I think the bigger, more important part of that is that it puts pressure on the owners of this place to actually meet us at the table and take us seriously,” Kapps said. “When they see how many people in the community are paying attention and supporting us, that’s pressure, you know, that’s incentive to meet with us.”

Employees met with management and ownership in May, during which they outlined demands and cited staff’s negative experiences as evidence, according to the statement from NWU. 

Earlier in June, workers were looking forward to a meeting with co-owner Jason Lajeunesse,

“We’re asking him to do the right thing and meet our demands in full because we truly believe that this is how we make Neumos a safer and more sustainable place for everyone,” Goldstein said.

Goldstein said the efforts to organize go beyond the employees at Neumos.

“If people are looking for what they can do to support us, keep coming to Neumos, Barboza, the Runaway.” Goldstein said. “Let staff know that you support our goals and movement. That’s always something that warms our hearts and motivates us because it’s really about the communities that we serve.”

The Journalism and Public Interest Communication News Lab at the University of Washington gives advanced journalism students an opportunity to build a dynamic clip portfolio by reporting for any of 70 client news outlets in the greater Seattle area. CHS is proud to work with young journalists and feature their work.

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE

Subscribe to CHS to help hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month — or choose your level of support