Another Alamo Drafthouse theater is poised to go union.
On Friday, a majority of eligible employees at the Sony-owned theater chain’s Slaughter Lane location in Austin, Texas voted to affiliate with the United Auto Workers in a National Labor Relations Board election, according to union organizers. Workers voted 52-16 to join the UAW, with 94 percent of those eligible participating in the election. The results are still pending certification from the NLRB, which would make the union official.
“This is the result of four months of hard work and outreach by organizers,” the group of organizers, which calls itself SlaughterHouse United, stated on Friday. “We look forward to the result being officially certified by the NLRB post-haste and to begin bargaining with Alamo in good faith to secure a fair contract for our workplace.”
In a statement, an Alamo Drafthouse spokesperson said, “We respect Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane theater’s right to organize, and we are committed to bargaining in good faith.”
According to organizers, 73 hourly employees, such as concierge staff, line cooks, bartenders, guest attendants and hourly supervisors, will be included in the union.
The group went public with its unionization efforts in March after company-wide layoffs impacted the Austin location. Organizers called the job cuts the “last straw” amid alleged “stagnant” wages and a lack of “meaningful improvements to the day-to-day workplace.”
The Slaughter Lane location wasn’t the only theater to take action over broad job cuts at the chain. Unionized New York and Colorado locations went on two separate strikes in February in response to the terminations, with the Colorado work stoppage lasting only a few days, while Alamo’s downtown Brooklyn and lower Manhattan locations picketed for 58 days.
If the results are certified, the Slaughter Lane union and management will next work towards negotiating their first labor contract.
In their statement on Friday, the organizers called on all Alamo Drafthouse theaters to unionize to “take advantage of Alamo’s shifting strategy on labor.” The group claimed that “it is apparent to us that CEO Michael Kusterman and VP of Operations Kelley Bondelie are moving the company closer to a position of labor neutrality.”
On Saturday, another Austin-based Alamo Drafthouse, the flagship South Lamar location, some of whose employees have been attempting to unionize for years, appeared to answer the call for more labor activity. Employees staged a one-day “sickout” and asked patrons to swap their tickets for a different day or ask for refunds.
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