On May 6, a letter went out to Burgerville workers with their paychecks: CEO Jeff Harvey is worried that a union effort would disrupt the low-wage company’s “special culture.”
The letter is full of standard anti-union boilerplate about interference from “outsiders.” [Read the whole sordid thing here.] Harvey seems unaware that the Burgerville Workers Union, launched April 26 in Portland, is a grassroots effort by workers themselves.
But on May 10, the campaign got a boost from presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who issued a statement of support: “I applaud the workers of Burgerville in Oregon for forming a union. … The Burgerville Workers Union is a perfect example of the type of political revolution that we need,” Sanders said.
Burgerville worker Mark Medina spoke at a May 10 Sanders rally in Salem.
MORE: Keep up with the Burgerville Workers Union campaign on the group’s Facebook page.
