Barboncino in Crown Heights could become the city’s first unionized pizzeria

By Brooklyn Magazine Staff

Would you like a little collective bargaining with your pie? A supermajority of employees at popular Crown Heights eatery Barboncino have voted to make it the first unionized pizza spot in the city.

More than 40 of Barboncino non-management employees recently voted to sign authorization cards with the “Workers Union” to unionize the Franklin Avenue spot, they announced on Twitter. Now it’s in management hands to negotiate.

Barboncino is one of the few restaurants that could become unionized and, some believe, could start a trend within the city. Employees are optimistic that management will voluntary recognize them, with one employee telling the leftist magazine Jacobin “we’re going to win the election,” adding “it’s not even going to be close.”

In response, Barboncino owners Emma Walton and Jesse Shapell told Jacobin that they’re “aware some of its employees have shown an interest in unionizing.”

“Barboncino will continue, as always, to support its customers, community and employees,” they added.

Unionization has been growing in recent years, especially at chains like Starbucks where employees are seeking better working conditions.

To that end, employees at another Brooklyn establishment, the Barnes & Noble on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, also sent a letter to the National Labor Relations Board to get the ball rolling on a union.

In a release, a majority of the store employees voted in favor of forming a union saying it’s needed because they deal with “unstable scheduling practices, a lack of structure when it comes to job duties and tasks at work, and favoritism by management,” Brownstoner is reporting.

“I have been working at this store for over a year and I constantly see how our low wages affect me and my co-workers in what I can choose to afford each week whether it’s food, a MetroCard or time spent with friends,” said Haruka Iwaski, a senior bookseller. There is an unfair balance in how much I am working and how much we are getting paid.”