Workers at 3 game board cafés want to rewrite a few rules

Staff at a popular chain of board game cafés in Manhattan said they are done playing games with management. After a nine-month organizing campaign, the workers at Hex & Company marched on their bosses last month, demanding that they voluntarily recognize their nascent union, and bargain on pay, safe staffing and paths to promotion.  

A supermajority of workers at Hex & Co.’s three locations have indicated their desire to unionize and workers hoped that management, seeing the clear support, would quickly recognize the union, Hex Workers United, and begin talks. But three days after the workers delivered a unionization petition, Hex & Co.’s owners Jon Freeman and Greg May instead filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board, a process that would take much longer than the workers would like.