For more than a year, a gay man from North Philadelphia has led the charge for a fair process to organize workers at Au Bon Pain in the Philadelphia International Airport.
“What brought me to the point of wanting to partake is I wanted to have a voice in what was going on,” said Ernest Cottle, 25, who participated along with dozens of others in a protest Dec. 17 calling for the ability to freely discuss whether to form a union.
“I’ve always been outspoken,” he said. “I’d faced discrimination in previous job applications. A lot of the guys interviewing me saw I was gay and I could sense a change. It made me stronger.”
Cottle said management at Au Bon Pain, where he’s worked the overnight shift for three years, practiced favoritism with certain employees while speaking harshly to others. He didn’t encounter any anti-LGBT comments from Au Bon Pain managers.
“They were just being generally disrespectful,” Cottle said.
Wearing Santa hats, the employees gathered at a free-speech area outside Terminal C. Representatives of Philadelphia City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown also attended.
In October, City Council passed a resolution calling for Au Bon Pain “to resolve its ongoing labor dispute quickly and peacefully with workers.”
“The time for action is now,” Reynolds Brown said in a statement. “Au Bon Pain workers have been waiting over a year to have a fruitful conversation with the company about a fair process to organize. It is time to give them a seat at the table and allow their voices to be heard.”
Maria Feicht, chief brand officer at Au Bon Pain, based in Boston, confirmed that the company had met with Unite Here, the labor union providing guidance in organizing to workers at Philadelphia International Airport.
“The union wishes for Au Bon Pain to recognize it without giving employees an opportunity to participate in a secret ballot election as the law provides,” Feicht said in a statement. “Unite Here’s tactics have included attempts to pressure and harass team members who are not interested in Unite Here.”
Feicht added that Au Bon Pain wants to ensure its employees receive the protection of the National Labor Relations Act.
“Au Bon Pain’s most valuable resource is its people,” she said, noting the average wage for its employees at the airport exceeds $9 per hour and longer-tenured team members earn much more.
Cottle said all team members at the café had to attend six mandatory anti-union meetings since workers began petitioning for a fair process to organize last fall.
In 2018, a “labor peace” provision will become part of the lease between Philadelphia and Marketplace Development, which handles retail development and management at the airport.
Diego Parra, spokesman for Unite Here, said he didn’t want Au Bon Pain workers to get left behind while other employees at the airport have been allowed to negotiate fairer practices before the new provision takes effect.
PCE-employed fast-food workers at the airport — including those at Earl of Sandwich, Wendy’s and Villa Pizza — this year voted to approve their first union contract, guaranteeing that workers will receive raises over the next two-and-a-half years. They also worked with Unite Here.
“We’re not losing any motivation,” said Cottle, who works a second job as a home-care aid to make ends meet. “With the holidays coming up, I do feel this could be a good start to show people they are cared about where they work.”