In a New York City first, a union slice

Workers at Barboncino in Crown Heights have been serving up wood-fired pizzas and Italian-American classics for more than a decade in a brick-lined dining room off Franklin Avenue. Since May, they’ve been serving an extra side of solidarity with each salumi board, Caesar salad and four-cheese pie. That was when when the restaurant’s workers announced their intent to unionize with Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.

“There was so much excitement when we joined Workers United, people wanted to feel like a union right away,” Alex Dinndorf, a waiter and member of the union’s organizing committee said Tuesday. Dinndorf and several other staffers wore Workers United shirts and pins while working their shifts, a symbol of their confidence that the election would swing in favor of unionizing, particularly since a supermajority of the pizzeria’s employees had signed union authorization cards this spring.

On Wednesday, the workers got their wish, winning an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board in a unanimous vote, becoming New York City’s first unionized standalone pizzeria. “A unanimous victory sends [management] a message,” Dinndorf said after the 26-to-zero tabulation concluded. 

Dinndorf and about a dozen other Barboncino employees gathered at a staffer’s apartment to watch a video feed of an NLRB board agent counting the ballots. With each yes vote, the workers let out a cheer, and a celebratory whoop following the last vote.

“We knew, but it was still great to know for sure,” Scout Gottfried, a Barboncino server, said following the ballot count. John Collier, another server, is now looking ahead to the next step — bargaining a first contract. “This closes that chapter of our work and opens a new one,” he told The Chief Wednesday. 

“We are aware of the results of the election, and we are reviewing the next steps of the process,” Jesse Shapell, Barboncino’s owner, said in an emailed statement. 

Support from clientele

Staff at Barboncino will join Workers United, affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, which has organized more than 300 Starbucks locations across the country. Dinndorf said that his colleagues were inspired by the Starbucks workers’ resilience and courage, as well as their ability to rapidly unionize stores across the country despite unrelenting opposition from the Seattle-based coffee conglomerate. 

"The Starbucks campaign started with one store in Buffalo and if they can do it, we can do it too with some degree of scale,” Dinndorf said. "There's so few unionized restaurants that if you have one really successful campaign, you can inspire other places to do the same.”  

Ike Fenner, another server at Barboncino, said he knows of several other city restaurants whose staff are looking to unionize. Several of those workers have reached out to Barboncino workers for organizing tips. 

Locals and regulars have been showing their support as well. “A lot of people come in and love to talk about organizing,” he said. “We hand out some pins, talk to them about the union, they eat some pizza and sometimes write a little note on the check that we post on our Instagram.” 

Barboncino staff first met with representatives from Workers United last summer after being connected through the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, a project formed by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, an independent rank-and-file union, and the Democratic Socialists of America, that connects workers across the country with organizers and offers assistance to unionization campaigns. 

The impetus for organizing at Barboncino was an especially stressful night in the summer of 2022 when a water pipe exploded and wastewater flooded the restaurant’s basement, which staff had to wade through to drain and then clean up. The restaurant stayed open for another two and a half hours afterwards. 

‘We’re committed to negotiating’ 

Critical issues for the workers include protections from firings without cause, raises for front- and kitchen staff and the establishment of a clear procedure for how management will address allegations of drug use and sexual harassment. Servers and other front-room staff currently make a base wage of $10 plus tips while pay for kitchen staff ranges from $18 to $23 an hour. 

“This is incredibly highly skilled labor,” Dinndorf said. “And we need a living wage.” 

Workers also hope to include clauses about increased hours and the posting of work schedules several weeks in advance, a policy that staffers say was the norm under the previous owner, who sold the restaurant in late 2022. “People need enough hours and to know their certain workdays,” Dinndorf argued. “We’re not on-call employees.” 

Bargaining for a contract with management could take many months but Fenner thinks workers are prepared for that. “We’re a strong group of like-minded people who are all friends,” he said. 

“We’re committed to negotiating with [management] and we're gonna go to the table and be as cordial and as diplomatic as possible,” Dinndorf added. “And we hope they're gonna do the same for us.”  

dfreeman@thechiefleader.com