Workers at Neumos, Barboza, and The Runaway went public this month with demands that their management at Fokus Industries address security and pay issues that they say have made Neumos an unsafe place to work.
Neumos Workers United launched the public campaign on May Day, officially declared by city council this year as International Workers Day, and marched in the annual parade with other workers after flyering the neighborhood. They aren’t technically unionizing, as in not filing for a workplace election with the National Labor Relations Board, and organized to create the interdepartmental solidarity required to confront management.
Neumos workers published a number of demands they have of management, as well as a narrative charting how and why they organized after management was unresponsive to concerns.
First off, they’re calling on management to follow federal and local labor law regarding things like meal and rest breaks, overtime, and payroll mistakes.
Then there’s the matter of safety. Neumos workers claim management doesn’t give the security department leeway to properly staff the venues, nor pay them enough to keep experienced staff around, leading to “the endangerment and hospitalization of multiple employees.” Workers want the security department to have the authority to schedule as many staff as they think necessary to keep employees and patrons safe, and to bump security pay up to $30 an hour.
Two organizers with Neumos Workers United—Charlie, who works on the bar side, and M- who works mostly security—tell The Stranger a violent incident on Super Bowl Sunday galvanized workers into action.
They say management scheduled only a skeleton crew during the Super Bowl, not expecting much of a crowd despite the Seahawks competing. After the game, rowdy crowds ripped down street signs outside the venue at 10th and Pike. With only one employee managing each door, a particularly unruly drunk started a fight and had to be restrained by a group of employees. They say the security manager ended up in the hospital with a concussion.
With summer music festival season and the World Cup right around the corner, workers say they felt compelled to organize and bring their security concerns to management before it’s too late.
According to Charlie, security is so shortstaffed that workers from other departments find themselves acting as impromptu security personnel when patrons get violent.
“When we don’t have enough security during a bar fight that breaks out, it gets left to the bartender,” Charlie says.
They say fights aren’t constant, but frequent enough—the nightlife industry is predicated on alcohol and crowds after all—that the issue can’t be ignored.
The final demand was for management and ownership to meet with workers on a regular basis to hear their concerns. According to the narrative Neumos Workers United published on May 1, management delayed meeting with workers for weeks after they organized. The workers appealed directly to owners Jason Lajeunesse, Mike Meckling, Steven Severin, and Jerry Everard for a meeting.
Neumos Workers United says management finally met with them on May 6, and agreed to a few specific concessions, including providing security with radio earpieces, flashlights and uniforms, which workers say “the company should have already been paying for.”
They say management also committed to review staffing practices and wages at an all-staff meeting scheduled for June 3.
Neumos owners did not respond to a request for comment.