By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1360
Add Pizza Lupo to the list of Louisville businesses where union drives have succeeded lately.
After a majority of employees signed Restaurant Workers United cards, the owners didn’t force a vote. "Workers at Pizza Lupo have won voluntary recognition of their new union, creating one of the first independent union restaurants in the South in living memory," says the RWU. They're part of an explosion of union organizing happening in Louisville, Kentucky."
RWU is “an independent, democratic, worker-led union for restaurant, bar, and cafe workers,” according to its website,” which also says the union is “organizing to change our industry and fight for justice, dignity, and jobs that we can depend on.”
The union began in 2020 in the COVID-19 pandemic. RWU “found that restaurant workers need our own voice to win the respect we deserve. Our promise is simple: If you’re a worker who’s ready to change this industry, we will stand with you and help you organize with your coworkers.”
In the Louisville area, employees at Starbucks, Sunergos and Heine Brothers coffee stores have voted in unions. So have workers at Half-Price books and Louisville's public defenders.
Louisville Courier-Journal newsroom employees are voting on whether to unionize. After a "super-majority" of employees signed union cards, C-J management refused to recognize the union, necessitating a National Labor Relations Board-sanctioned vote. Media giant Gannett owns the newspaper.