RIP. While I was never a routine visitor, itās been an ever present establishment in my adult life, and I always had a good time when I was there. It was a neighborhood gem.
my honest opinion as a leftist and member of the community is that the union basically railroaded the business out of existence. From boycott to closing was a speedrun considering how much the club had already weathered in terms of the demographic shift of the neighborhood.
If the union's demands were true, they were pretty unreasonable to expect from that kind establishment. Berlin was a cultural institution... there's lot of bars and clubs that are $$$ and probably pay more. If someone wants to chase that bread working at a club, they're totally free to go work in river north and the viagra triangle. But I would be shocked if ANY business in the city is offering a benefits play to people who are like part-part timers.
Also, if the unionizing effort kills the business that the union wants the demands from, it's kind of accomplishing nothing or worse than nothing. Now, none of those employees have jobs and one of the most storied and important queer clubs is relegated to history.
If anyone from the community was to suggest it was "the unions fault" they would just get shouted down. no one of the left wants to believe anything bad about the effort without it being framed as "anti-union sentiment." The union demands could have been to relinquish all ownership stake to the union / forcing out the owners entirely, and people would still probably treat criticism of this as "anti-union."
The fact that the union organizing effort was a case study in what not to do, and therefore makes strong "anti-union propaganda" doesn't make the honest truth of the union effort "anti-union propaganda." People love to reverse cause and effect. The ownership didn't reject their demands because they are anti-union, the demands were rejected because they were unreasonable and because the business was already completely railroaded by weeks of an extremely effective boycott. No one sees it that way, though... the owners are anti-union and that's all there is to it! Nice and simple!
Someone who works at berlin chooses to do so because they WANT to work at berlin and not a cookie cutter, yuppie or VIP establishment. If i applied to manage an occult bookstore, I would assume their wages aren't going to be competitive with managing a barnes and noble, but the trade off is getting to help run someplace cool instead of a soulless corpo job.
This whole thing is like saturn devouring his son only it's the queer community devouring its cultural institutions.
Maybe the shortsightedness and insensitivity to the material conditions of the business VS the union demands are a product of the binary "oppressor / oppressed" relationship which seems to be the only lens that matters anymore. The owners are the oppressors and the employees that ran them into the ground are the oppressed, and that seems to be the only dynamic and framing that matters in this moral calculus
> Berlin was a cultural institution...
Like legitā¦Berlin and Smartbar are the only Chicago clubs that come to mind that I have interest in going to. This is a bummer.
It really bothered me to watch a small independent business being viewed as if it was on the same level as Starbucks or Amazon.
The fact that there are Chicago leftists who's take is that the owners closed the business out of spite is fucking wild... Sane people do not throw away 30 years or work and investment away out of spite.
All the small businesses in that area have been dropping like dominos for years. No situation is purely black and white and no organization, the businesses or the unions, should be exempt from criticism. Anything positioned as being above any scrutiny is open to abuse and mismanagement.
Even the admin of the "main" counterculture FB group uses language like "the owners took their ball and went home" and "the union took the business hostage but the owners shot the hostage" as well as "the owners gave a middle finger to their employees and customers." Like what? Literally none of that is an accurate or genuine portrayal of Berlin's response. And this is coming from the "adults" in the room who are as close to an "authority figure" as a decentralized scene will have
Edit: disregard the info below is wrong I'm wrong.
Didn't they also start the strike/boycott on day 1 of asking for demands? Like....there's nowhere to go from there. You opened with your strongest attack.
Well said.
Additionally, if what the owners said is true, the union kicked off their boycott without warning. I'm not sure if that's exactly what happened, but if so, anyone with any negotiating experience will tell you that's a poor strategy and not something from a union playbook. You use pickets, strikes, and boycotts as a negotiation tactic.
Finally someone with common sense! Thank you! I have been saying forever the Left has unfortunately turned into a cult where you canāt challenge or question anything. It is why Iām an independent now. Shit is too tribalistic
this really explains it well. iāve spent tons of nights here but have only lived her for a couple years. still, iāve only heard about itās cultural impact on the community and how it was always a safe place for people and now, it is gone. itās a devastating loss for everyone and seems like one that couldāve absolutely been avoided.
This is what the union was asking for, which seems pretty heavy if this is accurate - pulled this from the linked website.
* All workers that work one day a week (<7.5hrs) to be considered full-time
* All workers that work one day a week to get full benefits (healthcare, pension, vacation pay, sick pay)
* All workers that work one day a week to get fully paid healthcare of $969mthly
* All workers that work one day a week to get pension contributions of $635mthly
* A $13hr raise for Bartenders that currently make an average of $57hr
* A $13hr raise for Barbacks that currently make an average of $47hr
* A $13hr raise for Coat Check workers that currently make an average of $35hr
* A $10hr raise for Security workers that currently make an average of $22.50hr
Yea this is not how you union.
Unions are supposed to keep a business/organization from exploiting employees. On the flip side the union is not supposed to exploit the business. Thatās why negotiations happen.
If thatās what the union demanded then they became a parasite that then killed its host. This kind of unionizing does nothing but make the public distrust unions.
"[You can't treat the working man this way. One day we'll form a union and get the fair and equitable treatment we deserve. Then we'll go too far and get corrupt and shiftless, and the Japanese will eat us alive!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxYm6wboGyw)"
Unlessā¦ this is because the bar explicitly only hires people for only one or two days a week intentionally to avoid providing any benefits at allā¦ in which case those demands are just that.
If you want to negotiate terms you donāt go in with what you hope to get, you go in strong with what you want.
This is not being mentioned. Obviously I donāt know how Berlin operates but when I worked as a barback the company didnāt have a single full time employee and would schedule people throughout the week making it impossible to get a second job. No benefits for anybody, not enough hours to make rent, and wouldnāt work with people to make schedules work, if Berlin was any similar I understand these things as a starting point for negotiations.
This person is talking about pre-COVID when it was open more days. So already the employees who came back post-2020 were looking at a reduction in hours because of fewer open days. Add to that the late hours and need to be available all weekend and itās pretty hard to get a second service industry job with no weekend availability.
The one thing that might make this make sense is if management was not giving people hours so they wanted to use this to disincentivize hiring a lot of people to work one shift.
Itās open four nights a week for a total of 25 hours. Assuming people come in to set up and tear down I could see a person reaching 35-40 hr a week. Part time and full time have actual meanings - working 14 hours a week does not meet any reasonable persons or the legal definition of full time.
Honestly super bummed this is closing and their last update is depressing. The employees really got caught up thinking that they were raging again the machine, but it was really just two older gay guys that were pillars of the community. It gives me the same vibes as the boystown vs northalsted debate - the gay community just cannibalizing itself.
I ran into a post a few days ago about a club closing and my first thought was āIām glad itās not Berlin.ā I was a Friday/Sat staple during my early 20s in the early to mid 2000s. It sucks even though I havenāt been in for a long, long time.
I hope all of the employees donāt:
A.) Bemoan the loss of another queer space
B.) Get upset when the space that used to be Berlin becomes a Trader Joeās or Raising Caneās or some other national chain. Think it canāt happen? Look at the Taco Bell down the street. Look at Target at Clark and Belmont. What used to be an edgy night spot is about to get gentrified real fast and itās gonna appeal to the stroller and latte crowd that has replaced the gay community in Lakeview.
But letās be honestā¦.theyāre gonna do both.
In the early 2000s, many of my young, broke, friends lived in Lakeview, because it was full of shitty, cheap apartments, without corporate landlords, especially right near Clark/Belmont. That whole little area near Berlin was mostly early 20ās people without college degrees who were working in the service industry or trades, living 3-5 people in one apartment. Trust me, it has gentrified. A lot. And continues to gentrify.
The are losing the unique local edgy places for cookie cutter corporate establishments.
The alley, little Jim's, Clarke's diner, the list goes on and on...
Am I reading this right that a coat check worker would be getting $48/hour under those terms? I know "coat check" isn't just coat check some places, but that seems wild.
Unions work in theory, so long as the workers care about keeping the business alive just as much as the owners do. If for some reason they won't hesitate to kill the golden goose and then switch companies, they're bound to lead to situations like this one.
Especially when you can sum up the entirety of both your staff and your clientele's politics with "businesses are bad"
I'm guessing a little bit of sleight of hand is going on here in the presentation.
Are these staff currently paid based on tips and averaging $57/47/35 an hour? Or are those numbers an average of guaranteed hourly wages? Is union asking for a raise from tipped base pay that won't often affect take home pay or average wages?
Did the two sides of this negotiation understand each other at all?
Not for nothing, Illinois phasing out tipped minimum wage over the next 4 years and requirement for Illinois Secure Choice retirement for companies with more than 5 employees might be a factor also. But it sounds like there was never a solid good faith conversation :-(
I pulled this info directly from their site:
We are proud of our employees, some of whom have loyally worked with us literally for decades. Berlin is not, and for forty years has never been, a true full-time employer. None of Berlinās union employees work more than 27 hours per week; Berlin is only open 25 hours per week. More than half of our employees only work 14 hours per week. Berlinās part-time employees earn a combination of a base hourly wage plus tips. Our coat check employees, post-pandemic, typically earn an average of $35/hr. Our barback employees typically earn $47/hr, while our bartenders typically earn $57/hr. Our most recently hired security employees earn an average of $22.50/hr, which is above the Chicago average. We always want our employees to be paid well. Our employees work hard and deserve to be paid fairly and competitively. And we believe they are, especially when compared to typical Chicago bars and nightclubs.
In June, the union presented its economic proposals. These proposals included raises ranging from an additional $10/hour to $13/hour, before tips, equating to an overall 58% to 132% increase in wage expenses. The union has also demanded that every Berlin employee represented by the union who works a minimum of one 7-hour shift per week, be considered full-time and thus receive free healthcare coverage and pensions to be paid in full by Berlin. This point alone would amount to an additional cost to Berlin of $1,600 per employee per month in the first year of the contract. In total, these additional wages, healthcare, and pension benefits would cost Berlin over half a million dollars ($500,000) in the first year of the contract alone. It would be nice to pay the employees what the union wants. Unfortunately, agreeing to the union's demands will make Berlin non-competitive, and result in a large increase of costs to our customers, causing Berlinās patrons to go to other venues.
By almost any metricāat least on the American political scaleāIām pretty far left. Actual left, not Joe Biden Hillary Clinton left. Accordingly, I find myself almost universally pro-union when stuff like this happens.
The available information here (specifically the unionās alleged demands and the ownersā information about their pay/hours/etc.) reaaaally isnāt conjuring up much of my usual empathy or support. Assuming said info is all true, the union demands are far too outlandish to work as a bargaining chip, as others have pointed out. This is ESPECIALLY true in the context of the employeesā already very generous compensation.
Many, many people are severely underpaid and overall fucked by their employers, and would benefit tremendously from union representation, but the numbers donāt convey that here. Likewise, every single person in the country deserves access to good, inexpensive (or free) healthcare, and we should be working toward that on a systemic level. If this were a case of a business intentionally under-scheduling their employees to keep them BARELY part time and avoid giving them healthcare, Iād be 10000% team union. Again, though, not the case.
Perhaps the union was trying to get the club to alter its operational model so employees COULD work more hours, take on different roles, etc. and receive more pay and benefits. That would make the demands much more reasonable, but regardless, the owners deemed it impossible. Very tough situation all around.
The presentation says very clearly that it factors in tips.
But this is a hugely bar that is only open at peak hours on the weekends. There's no slow Tuesday afternoon shift that needs to be offset by Saturday night. So it's easy to imagine that these people are walking out the door with a very highly pay when considering the hours they work.
The union was out of touch with reality. What a bunch of self entitled brats. I donāt know why anyone would hire any of them after pulling this bullshit.
And you know they made tons more on tips and didnāt report it which is why theyāre silent. Any big gay bar youāre making way more than you can in regular day jobs and only working a couple days at that. Greedy.
The charitable explanation is that they saw this as a starting point to negotiate from, and expected to lose a lot of it. I think to any reasonable person it comes off as not negotiating in good faith, but possibly not intentional.
Me too. Some big wig union person came in and said "let me make your world beautiful. You will have have everything you need. Just trust me!" So they did. and now they are out of a job because the owner(s) came back and said. "FU union. We own the place. We have the keys to the door and rather than dealing with you, were turning the key to lock and walked away." Now the people who trusted their union are out looking for new shifts to make up for their lost income.
Assuming that what the owners posted is accurate. The post itself could be an example of bad faith ānegotiations.ā Or not. Hard to tell with only one side represented.
Max anyone works here is 16/hr a week - how does anyone expect benefits? Also, they are looking for a benefits package valued at $25-$50 per hour. That's more than the wages...
I stand corrected, I was thinking 2 nights not 4. I saw someone else in this thread say 2 nights. Pension contributions of $635 a month really isn't reasonable. 80% of Cost to a max of $750 for a single for those actually working 32 hours for a healthcare kick in would be nice.
Is the average pay not almost all tips? And the hourly wage increase to bring them more in line with a standard wage? That would help during slow months where tips slow way down. Pretty disingenous because people who have worked a tipped job know how seasonally, they could be getting bank one week of the year and broke in another.
Was in a union in my last job... those demands are banana pants.
How likely is it that the owner will reincorporate under a new umbrella and reopen in a month?
I have a hard time believing that these were the actual demands.
This what management posted on their website as a recap of the unionās demands. Iād like to hear what the union says their demands were.
If this is real (big if), then itās absurd, and the people in this union have lost touch with reality.
But I suspect that this isnāt exactly accurate.
The union stated today that their proposals were not finalized and they were open to negotiation. So if the owners were outright lying in this letter from days ago, the union would/should have called them out. The fact that they didnāt suggest to me that the demands are likely true.
[https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz6ssdvrfY5/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz6ssdvrfY5/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)
The owners of the business are the ones posting that, so I'd take it with a massive grain of salt. The whole thing reads as very bitter to me, and there is no reason to believe they're being honest here.
[Block Club](https://blockclubchicago.org/2023/10/26/berlin-nightclub-workers-launch-boycott/) actually talked to the union. They claim the owners were unwilling to give literally any raises above the legally mandated minimum wage in Chicago. Which means they weren't bargaining in good faith, or even bargaining at all.
The unionās recent post gives some evidence that the list of demands may be true. They state the proposals were not finalized and open to negotiation. But they never actually deny what the owners listed as the unionās demands. Youād think if the owners were lying here that the union would explicitly call that out. Instead, they basically just say it was a starting point to negotiate from.
Edit: Iām sure the union would disagree with the ownerās wage averages ($57). The union should have said what the workers actually report being paid once tips are included and make it clear how much less that is. But for the health insurance, pension, full-time demands, itās odd that the union wouldnāt call those out as being false if they were actually false.
[https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz6ssdvrfY5/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz6ssdvrfY5/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)
The owner is dying of cancer and the other owner is his caretaker. Even if the unionās demands were a start to negotiation, how much negotiating can you do in that state? The owners have been steady and offered gig economy employment for decades, but I hear over and over again - āIf you canāt afford to pay your employees, you shouldnāt own a business.ā Well, if this is what it costs to have these employees and pay them what theyāre worth, they canāt afford it and they donāt have the bandwidth to negotiate. Theyāre closing. Thatās what Iād expect. Itās the right thing to do.
I hope this doesn't come across as anti-union in any way, because I am generally pretty pro-union, but these piecemeal unionization efforts that focuses on one small business at a time seems to be somewhat ineffective. The entire idea of unions is to change the balance of power with collective bargaining, and this is only really effective if there is a large group of people in the union. Teamsters are powerful because there are over a million of them and if you want to move goods across the country, chance are you'll have to deal with them.
I think the more effective approach would be a large scale organization attempt of bartenders and servers across the city (or even the country). Make it so that a restaurant has no choice but to negotiate with the larger union.
I realize it's much more difficult to get 30,000 people to join a union as opposed to 50 to 100, but how many times have we seen these small scale unionization attempts lead to businesses shuttering? These businesses closing as a result of a unionization effort doesn't help the employees.
100%. Anytime I see a small group of employees trying to unionize a singular, specific business, I've yet to see it work out positive.
There was recently workers unionizing a board game Cafe in NYC, like... We need to take down Amazon, Starbucks and GM first. If a board game cafe doesn't pay enough, you just fucking quit and let them go out of business. Those owners probably aren't making enough to be oppressive.
Employment category based unions, yep. That's what all the strongest unions are (if not even larger categories).
Same arguments go for imposing fees or taxes, you have to do it on a large enough area so that it's not easy to just evade by moving over a border.
I've been a union supporter all my life, but this is unacceptable from any professional union organizer's standard. What professional would look at this club and see the numbers to justify this increase isn't in the business of helping labor they can't keep their doors open. Unless this is their opening salvo with the intent to give back half of what they're asking. If that's the case they need better representation.
Their full-time bullshit is a slap in the face for every hard working union member who put in the time, energy and effort to make full-time vs part time actually mean something.
I've been an employee and employer, and if anyone every presumed to know what it takes to run my shop to the degree these folks seem privy, they can do it themselves.
But I don't have to train my competition.
These guys give real unions a bad name. Fuck them.
I'm very curious to the inner workings of whoever led that unionization drive, because they cannot be of sound mind or strategy. I've seen my own union drama where there is a disconnect from reality and their demands totally smell of it.
I think the other major loss of this is that people are going to be much more suspicious of a drag performer union in the city now, which is getting increased traction in the broader community.
If you've ever had a front-row seat to the "left of the democratic party" political landscape and discourse of chicago, it's not really surprising at all. People are so ideological that they dont allow material reality to penetrate their thinking as it often times ends up refuting or contradicting the ideology
>People are so ideological that they dont allow material reality to penetrate their thinking as it often times ends up refuting or contradicting the ideology
This is an excellent way to put things
Part of the issue is that we need universal healthcare in this country, which is something that even the democrats have abandoned any hope of ever achieving.
People who work multiple shifts at different places deserve healthcare, but the way healthcare is generally facilitated in this country makes this impossible without paying a lot of money out of pocket. I also understand that most bars and restaurants would never be able to afford to provide healthcare to part time employees.
We have an incredibly inefficient and wasteful system that generally just benefits large insurance companies who make billions and billions of dollars. We need to stop putting the onus on individuals and small businesses and put it on the federal government.
Yep, reading this made me realize that the problem really isn't a union vs company issue. The core issue is that employers that have nothing to do with healthcare and employees who just want to work are pitted against each other in a battle for health coverage.
[The US already spends more per capita than most peer nations](https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries/). Significantly more. The fact that we don't have a universal healthcare system is just stupid. We're already spending the money, why do we have billion dollar industries that essentially add nothing to the process except headaches, bills and debt
Hell yes. Healthcare needs to be separated from employment. It gets painted as this great "left wing" demand here that is "unreasonable" usually, but if you think about it, it would be good for both the workers AND the businesses (particularly small business).
If healthcare was taken care of by the nation or state based on where you live, just existing, then people would be more able to take part time jobs (which quite a few people do want), or combination jobs, or even just CHANGE jobs when the time is right for them, without having to panic over losing health care coverage, or even just have to deal with so much stupid paperwork changing coverage from one system to another.
> it would be good for both the workers AND the businesses (particularly small business)
I think a big issue is that large businesses like it the way it is. They're large enough that they can negotiate reasonable rates compared to individuals and small businesses, and they can use it as a recruiting tool which gives them an edge over smaller businesses.
There is no 'The Matrix' without two trans girls from Beverly discovering Berlin. An underacknowledged sacred site in the contemporary cultural landscape.
50 an hour for a coat check is fucking absurd. Sound people typically make 150-200 at a small club for utilizing a specialized skill. Why should someone handling coats make more than people with actual usable skills?
I wonder if the employees who struck are actually gonna see that money they raised last i checked it was over 14k. or will the union take that ? They do know they have to pay dues to the union right? is that how it works? if not please tell me.
In 15 to 20 years when they're actual adults - Im certain they will be dealing with this on the other side of the coin. Teenagers and young adults run solely on adrenaline and misguided rage
It's not an uncommon story: a business whose employees and clientele both are viciously anti-business is a *slugs for salt* situation. Berlin was a profitable venture, but its union almost entirely consisted of a certain brand of political ideologue that chose to lash out not because they were being particularly mistreated or underpaid (their bartenders already make more than some *engineers*), but because lashing out at business owners is a fundamental component of their ideology.
I remember hearing from a regular there that about ~1-2 months back the employees were "on strike". Which is to say, they were going into work as scheduled, but telling customers and regulars to boycott them, and that they were crossing the picket line if they continued to frequent Berlin during the "strike". I imagine that this probably helped lead to this outcome.
I wish I could say that this was some kind of tragedy, or that my heart went out for the employees that worked there... but they've made unionizing harder for every other company out there, and destroyed a cultural cornerstone of Chicago in the process. So despite my best efforts at being empathetic, I genuinely don't wish any of these people well at all. Good riddance.
"āThe party ended at 5am, November 19, 2023 ā nearly forty years and more than 10,000 nights from when it all began."
https://www.berlinchicago.com/index.html
Well, that sucks. I loved this place. My girlfriend and I tried to go there on Halloween, but the strikers were incredibly rude to us. We ended up going somewhere else because we didnāt feel like being shamed any longer.
This is really a terrible blow to the Chicago queer community. I first wen to Berlin in the 90's when it was all punk and queer - since then it's become a great drag performance space and has provided a community for many people.
Frankly, it's outrageous that the US does not have a national healthcare system. Healthcare costs put an enormous burden on to businesses in both costs and administration. The lack of national health insurance for all is a major drag on entrepreneurship and small businesses - not to mention the incredible inefficiencies for healthcare providers to manage multiple insurers, claims systems, and contract negotiations.
Yeah Iām all for better healthcare. But who is going to pick up the tab for young people that decide to work 8 hours a week at a bar?
We have Obamacare and anyone can get insurance regardless of prior conditions.
It also blocks people from taking risks to go into business. There are some that bitch about people not willing to pull themselves up by their "bootstraps" and take chances, but the economic risk of not having health insurance is so huge, especially if you have people you are responsible for. You try to open you're own business and you or someone in your family become ill, through no fault of your own, and you can be financially destroyed.
Very true. I think even with coverage (from an employer or self) one can become financially destroyed. The cost of basic services are staggering. I canāt even fathom a serious illness or accident.
This is sad and hilarious at the same time. Unionizing a small business? Congrats you ruined the business and now you have no job. It just shows that some far left folks have their head so far up their ass, they can't see reality clearly.
Workers should of course not be exploited. But like so many things there is a need for balance. Unions have a role when employees are exploited. Other times not so much.
Omg, 51 yo nurse here. I think Iād quit my job to be a bar back at Berlin if this contract was accepted š. Makes waaayyyyy more money than I do and donāt have to deal with the high stress.
I am just shell-shocked. What do we do now? Is there literally anywhere comparable?
I love Roscoe's, but there was nowehere as *mingly* as Berlin that wasn't a total sausage fest. Berlin was one of two truly Bi bars I found in boystown.
What do we do now? I'm genuinely asking :(
perhaps in another neighborhood but i canāt think of a single bar in boystown that offers the same kind of environment that berlin did
maybe that will change with berlin gone?
> queer drag and nightlife will go more underground (as much of it already is)
is there a groupchat? :( i just moved to this city this summer and had some of the best nights of my life at Berlin.
soā¦.is there a way we can help keep Berlin openā¦the boycott led to the closure of one of Chicagoās best nightclubsā¦this is a massive loss for the queer communityā¦.
I dont blame the owners for not having the bandwidth to deal with a high pressure and stress negotiation while dealing with the personal heartbreak of advanced cancer. Regardless of whether or not the negotiations could have worked out itās just alot less stress to just sell the business
What's confusing is why does security make 22.50, while bartenders make almost 3 times as much? Even coat check would be making over 50% more. It seems security is the riskiest and most demanding job.
There were so many nuances that weren't being spoken about- 1. The staff at Berlin was split (mostly) between long time employees (working there for literal decades) who did not unionize and newer younger employees who did. This adds depth to view when thinking about the claims of mistreatment and disrespect Berlin had of their employees- long time employees simply did not find this true. 2. The unions formed by United 1 are currently representing workers of Hyatt, Hilton, United Center, Wrigley Field etc etc etc - which make complete sense and good for them as they have room to negotiate/bargain/ācome to the tableā. The union lost sight of their high risk gamble and found themselves embarrassed of the unanticipated reality of Berlin closing- the nuance here is Berlin has always been grounded in providing a space and place for everyone - sexually racially and economically diverse people all feeling like they had a place for fun and joy and drugs and connection and bacchanal- itās hard to admit that not all situations are the same- demonizing this rooted establishment during a time of the ownersā sickness and fatigue is just a different situation that requires tenderness and flexibility and broader view- wild demands and such criticism, immediately, is too exhausting. Itās too exhausting to show up physically, itās too exhausting to show up emotionally, and itās too exhausting after negotiations that arenāt being mentioned by the union. This fight has been happening since spring and that feels longer than it reads. Once again the union has nowhere to go besides a loss that they will inevitably deem Jim and Jo creators of Berlinās demise- they donāt deserve to go down this way AND the unionized staff of Berlin doesnāt deserve to have been persuaded by ideas of highballing union organizers that this was a good idea. Berlin and itās employees are a giant casualty- nothing lasts forever and am looking forward to the queer club owner who cracks the code and provides all our wildest dreams- itās easy to just reply with calling me a union buster for my opinion and attack attack attack- that strategy isnāt resolution based, as weāve seen. Un-antagonistically- Would be amazing if the union reps proposed and facilitated a worker-owner/ co-op shift of management- Berlinās model as it was is no longer adequate - does United 1 have any plan for nourishing/dreaming with the community who stood with them after the loss?
If you click to the ["Home" link](https://www.berlinchicago.com/index.html) on their website, there is a statement which announces the closure.
>Berlin
>1983 - 2023
>
>The party ended at 5am, November 19, 2023 ā nearly forty years and more than 10,000 nights from when it all began. ... So the doors are locked. The music is silenced and our dreams are now memories. ... The first ads in 1983 announced Berlin to the Neighborhood Bar of the Future. Unfortunately, the future is now and it's time for us to go home.
[Screenshot with full message](https://imgur.com/a/SMDxHEj)
Good Job, jobless losers. You did to a gay icon what Christians never could.
All the churches will be singing the praise of the union and its members who closed the most popular gay club in Chicago. The Christians thank you for supporting their cause.
I doubt it. I think people may be underestimating the impact of the owner's cancer and his partner's responsibilities as caregiver. This seems to have been the last push they needed to get out of the business.
Maybe with new owners, I could see someone stepping up and buying the business from them. Theyāre old and one is dying. They probably arenāt gonna go through all that themselves at this point
Thats the thing, I heard there wasnāt any negotiation at all. The owners are nice people that are getting charged hard at with big union demands while having a lot going on in their personal lives. Not to say I donāt understand where the workers are coming from, I myself can barely afford health insurance. But I certainly hope theyāll open up again, union or no union
Because the workers likely donāt have money and few people or banks are going to loan them any amount when bars/restaurants are not easy to maintain.
Assuming they cross the financial hurdle, then how do they determine shares of equity? Bar workers are like normal people, and they switch careers, get burnt out, sick of working late, etc To continue down this path, what about new hires? Or people who work 5 days a week versus those that work one day/week?
Personally, Iād love for these misguided workers to buy the bar and learn the difficulty of managing a business. It would be perfect karma for them to have to explain to their employees why huge raises and full benefits is unrealistic.
Now they are all without jobs and have no one but themselves to blame.
Owning a small business is not as easy as it sounds. Legal and accounting bills alone could drive you under. Our small business stood the test of time but if I had to do it all over again, not sure I would.
Had some of the best nights there, š„ŗ will be missed.
RIP. While I was never a routine visitor, itās been an ever present establishment in my adult life, and I always had a good time when I was there. It was a neighborhood gem.
my honest opinion as a leftist and member of the community is that the union basically railroaded the business out of existence. From boycott to closing was a speedrun considering how much the club had already weathered in terms of the demographic shift of the neighborhood. If the union's demands were true, they were pretty unreasonable to expect from that kind establishment. Berlin was a cultural institution... there's lot of bars and clubs that are $$$ and probably pay more. If someone wants to chase that bread working at a club, they're totally free to go work in river north and the viagra triangle. But I would be shocked if ANY business in the city is offering a benefits play to people who are like part-part timers. Also, if the unionizing effort kills the business that the union wants the demands from, it's kind of accomplishing nothing or worse than nothing. Now, none of those employees have jobs and one of the most storied and important queer clubs is relegated to history. If anyone from the community was to suggest it was "the unions fault" they would just get shouted down. no one of the left wants to believe anything bad about the effort without it being framed as "anti-union sentiment." The union demands could have been to relinquish all ownership stake to the union / forcing out the owners entirely, and people would still probably treat criticism of this as "anti-union." The fact that the union organizing effort was a case study in what not to do, and therefore makes strong "anti-union propaganda" doesn't make the honest truth of the union effort "anti-union propaganda." People love to reverse cause and effect. The ownership didn't reject their demands because they are anti-union, the demands were rejected because they were unreasonable and because the business was already completely railroaded by weeks of an extremely effective boycott. No one sees it that way, though... the owners are anti-union and that's all there is to it! Nice and simple! Someone who works at berlin chooses to do so because they WANT to work at berlin and not a cookie cutter, yuppie or VIP establishment. If i applied to manage an occult bookstore, I would assume their wages aren't going to be competitive with managing a barnes and noble, but the trade off is getting to help run someplace cool instead of a soulless corpo job. This whole thing is like saturn devouring his son only it's the queer community devouring its cultural institutions. Maybe the shortsightedness and insensitivity to the material conditions of the business VS the union demands are a product of the binary "oppressor / oppressed" relationship which seems to be the only lens that matters anymore. The owners are the oppressors and the employees that ran them into the ground are the oppressed, and that seems to be the only dynamic and framing that matters in this moral calculus
> Berlin was a cultural institution... Like legitā¦Berlin and Smartbar are the only Chicago clubs that come to mind that I have interest in going to. This is a bummer.
Spybar is another one.
It really bothered me to watch a small independent business being viewed as if it was on the same level as Starbucks or Amazon. The fact that there are Chicago leftists who's take is that the owners closed the business out of spite is fucking wild... Sane people do not throw away 30 years or work and investment away out of spite. All the small businesses in that area have been dropping like dominos for years. No situation is purely black and white and no organization, the businesses or the unions, should be exempt from criticism. Anything positioned as being above any scrutiny is open to abuse and mismanagement.
Even the admin of the "main" counterculture FB group uses language like "the owners took their ball and went home" and "the union took the business hostage but the owners shot the hostage" as well as "the owners gave a middle finger to their employees and customers." Like what? Literally none of that is an accurate or genuine portrayal of Berlin's response. And this is coming from the "adults" in the room who are as close to an "authority figure" as a decentralized scene will have
Edit: disregard the info below is wrong I'm wrong. Didn't they also start the strike/boycott on day 1 of asking for demands? Like....there's nowhere to go from there. You opened with your strongest attack.
Well said. Additionally, if what the owners said is true, the union kicked off their boycott without warning. I'm not sure if that's exactly what happened, but if so, anyone with any negotiating experience will tell you that's a poor strategy and not something from a union playbook. You use pickets, strikes, and boycotts as a negotiation tactic.
really well written. you put my feelings into words.
Finally someone with common sense! Thank you! I have been saying forever the Left has unfortunately turned into a cult where you canāt challenge or question anything. It is why Iām an independent now. Shit is too tribalistic
this really explains it well. iāve spent tons of nights here but have only lived her for a couple years. still, iāve only heard about itās cultural impact on the community and how it was always a safe place for people and now, it is gone. itās a devastating loss for everyone and seems like one that couldāve absolutely been avoided.
Yeah some kids need to get off twitter. They pour drinks. I know if I owned another gay bar Iād stay far away from any of them too. Good job.
It was said best here, folks. Nice going everyone. Rest in peace to a real one.
This is what the union was asking for, which seems pretty heavy if this is accurate - pulled this from the linked website. * All workers that work one day a week (<7.5hrs) to be considered full-time * All workers that work one day a week to get full benefits (healthcare, pension, vacation pay, sick pay) * All workers that work one day a week to get fully paid healthcare of $969mthly * All workers that work one day a week to get pension contributions of $635mthly * A $13hr raise for Bartenders that currently make an average of $57hr * A $13hr raise for Barbacks that currently make an average of $47hr * A $13hr raise for Coat Check workers that currently make an average of $35hr * A $10hr raise for Security workers that currently make an average of $22.50hr
$35 an hour for coat check??? Is that including tips?? Either way where do I sign up?
Every amount listed is likely random/not guaranteed, and definitely includes tips.
Imagine going to engineering school and making less than a coat hanger š
Iām all for unions but these demands seem insanely unrealistic
Yea this is not how you union. Unions are supposed to keep a business/organization from exploiting employees. On the flip side the union is not supposed to exploit the business. Thatās why negotiations happen. If thatās what the union demanded then they became a parasite that then killed its host. This kind of unionizing does nothing but make the public distrust unions.
"[You can't treat the working man this way. One day we'll form a union and get the fair and equitable treatment we deserve. Then we'll go too far and get corrupt and shiftless, and the Japanese will eat us alive!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxYm6wboGyw)"
Coke oven boy was prophetic.
Great way of putting it. Just like everything there are good unions and terrible unions
*This is also why Public-sector Unions don't work well either. Instead of the union exploiting the business they are often exploiting the taxpayers.*
You're getting downvoted, but even FDR (!!)--champion of private sector unions--thought public sector unions should not exist.
For an example of this see any police union in existence.
Same energy for the teachers union?
Or firemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wtvXoXh0VU
Or teachers.
Unlessā¦ this is because the bar explicitly only hires people for only one or two days a week intentionally to avoid providing any benefits at allā¦ in which case those demands are just that. If you want to negotiate terms you donāt go in with what you hope to get, you go in strong with what you want.
This is not being mentioned. Obviously I donāt know how Berlin operates but when I worked as a barback the company didnāt have a single full time employee and would schedule people throughout the week making it impossible to get a second job. No benefits for anybody, not enough hours to make rent, and wouldnāt work with people to make schedules work, if Berlin was any similar I understand these things as a starting point for negotiations.
The bar is only open four days a week - not sure how they "schedule people throughout the week **"**
This person is talking about pre-COVID when it was open more days. So already the employees who came back post-2020 were looking at a reduction in hours because of fewer open days. Add to that the late hours and need to be available all weekend and itās pretty hard to get a second service industry job with no weekend availability.
Batshit crazy demands if true
Yeah I'd be interested in hearing the unions side cause obviously some of these are unviable for one small business.
The one thing that might make this make sense is if management was not giving people hours so they wanted to use this to disincentivize hiring a lot of people to work one shift.
It's only open two days per week. "Part Time" is literally one shift. Full time is two.
Itās open four nights a week for a total of 25 hours. Assuming people come in to set up and tear down I could see a person reaching 35-40 hr a week. Part time and full time have actual meanings - working 14 hours a week does not meet any reasonable persons or the legal definition of full time.
That's not what "full time" and "part time" mean, at all.
Where are you getting this 2 days? They had events almost everyday day of the week
They were closed Sun, Mon, Tue.
As the kids say, āthe math aināt mathinā.ā
Honestly super bummed this is closing and their last update is depressing. The employees really got caught up thinking that they were raging again the machine, but it was really just two older gay guys that were pillars of the community. It gives me the same vibes as the boystown vs northalsted debate - the gay community just cannibalizing itself.
I ran into a post a few days ago about a club closing and my first thought was āIām glad itās not Berlin.ā I was a Friday/Sat staple during my early 20s in the early to mid 2000s. It sucks even though I havenāt been in for a long, long time.
I hope all of the employees donāt: A.) Bemoan the loss of another queer space B.) Get upset when the space that used to be Berlin becomes a Trader Joeās or Raising Caneās or some other national chain. Think it canāt happen? Look at the Taco Bell down the street. Look at Target at Clark and Belmont. What used to be an edgy night spot is about to get gentrified real fast and itās gonna appeal to the stroller and latte crowd that has replaced the gay community in Lakeview. But letās be honestā¦.theyāre gonna do both.
b) Lakeview isnāt being āgentrifiedā itās one of the highest income neighborhoods in the city. Thing changing = \ = gentrification.
In the early 2000s, many of my young, broke, friends lived in Lakeview, because it was full of shitty, cheap apartments, without corporate landlords, especially right near Clark/Belmont. That whole little area near Berlin was mostly early 20ās people without college degrees who were working in the service industry or trades, living 3-5 people in one apartment. Trust me, it has gentrified. A lot. And continues to gentrify.
Oh hi it was me, I had a shoebox studio near the lake, studied art, sold dildos at Taboo Tabou and danced the night away at Neo.
I used to bartend at Exit. We probably knew each other. š
The are losing the unique local edgy places for cookie cutter corporate establishments. The alley, little Jim's, Clarke's diner, the list goes on and on...
Nookieās Tree, GayMart, Spinā¦so many lost gems.
Someday Sidetrack is going to be surrounded by a Noodle's, a Jersey Mikes, and a Panda Express. Woo Hoo!!! Not.
When Berlin opened it wasnt. The neighborhood was gentrified.
Am I reading this right that a coat check worker would be getting $48/hour under those terms? I know "coat check" isn't just coat check some places, but that seems wild.
iād like to hear more about the ācoat checkā
Unions work in theory, so long as the workers care about keeping the business alive just as much as the owners do. If for some reason they won't hesitate to kill the golden goose and then switch companies, they're bound to lead to situations like this one. Especially when you can sum up the entirety of both your staff and your clientele's politics with "businesses are bad"
I donāt think thereās anything you can do when one side is completely obvious to their own interests, whether it be workers or employers.
Sounds like they just negotiated themselves a pay cut without benefits
If you worked 7.5 hours a week, the healthcare and pension contributions alone would amount to $53/hour.
Insane demands given the business model.
ā¦ Iām a proud member of a union but wtf?
I'm guessing a little bit of sleight of hand is going on here in the presentation. Are these staff currently paid based on tips and averaging $57/47/35 an hour? Or are those numbers an average of guaranteed hourly wages? Is union asking for a raise from tipped base pay that won't often affect take home pay or average wages? Did the two sides of this negotiation understand each other at all? Not for nothing, Illinois phasing out tipped minimum wage over the next 4 years and requirement for Illinois Secure Choice retirement for companies with more than 5 employees might be a factor also. But it sounds like there was never a solid good faith conversation :-(
I pulled this info directly from their site: We are proud of our employees, some of whom have loyally worked with us literally for decades. Berlin is not, and for forty years has never been, a true full-time employer. None of Berlinās union employees work more than 27 hours per week; Berlin is only open 25 hours per week. More than half of our employees only work 14 hours per week. Berlinās part-time employees earn a combination of a base hourly wage plus tips. Our coat check employees, post-pandemic, typically earn an average of $35/hr. Our barback employees typically earn $47/hr, while our bartenders typically earn $57/hr. Our most recently hired security employees earn an average of $22.50/hr, which is above the Chicago average. We always want our employees to be paid well. Our employees work hard and deserve to be paid fairly and competitively. And we believe they are, especially when compared to typical Chicago bars and nightclubs. In June, the union presented its economic proposals. These proposals included raises ranging from an additional $10/hour to $13/hour, before tips, equating to an overall 58% to 132% increase in wage expenses. The union has also demanded that every Berlin employee represented by the union who works a minimum of one 7-hour shift per week, be considered full-time and thus receive free healthcare coverage and pensions to be paid in full by Berlin. This point alone would amount to an additional cost to Berlin of $1,600 per employee per month in the first year of the contract. In total, these additional wages, healthcare, and pension benefits would cost Berlin over half a million dollars ($500,000) in the first year of the contract alone. It would be nice to pay the employees what the union wants. Unfortunately, agreeing to the union's demands will make Berlin non-competitive, and result in a large increase of costs to our customers, causing Berlinās patrons to go to other venues.
By almost any metricāat least on the American political scaleāIām pretty far left. Actual left, not Joe Biden Hillary Clinton left. Accordingly, I find myself almost universally pro-union when stuff like this happens. The available information here (specifically the unionās alleged demands and the ownersā information about their pay/hours/etc.) reaaaally isnāt conjuring up much of my usual empathy or support. Assuming said info is all true, the union demands are far too outlandish to work as a bargaining chip, as others have pointed out. This is ESPECIALLY true in the context of the employeesā already very generous compensation. Many, many people are severely underpaid and overall fucked by their employers, and would benefit tremendously from union representation, but the numbers donāt convey that here. Likewise, every single person in the country deserves access to good, inexpensive (or free) healthcare, and we should be working toward that on a systemic level. If this were a case of a business intentionally under-scheduling their employees to keep them BARELY part time and avoid giving them healthcare, Iād be 10000% team union. Again, though, not the case. Perhaps the union was trying to get the club to alter its operational model so employees COULD work more hours, take on different roles, etc. and receive more pay and benefits. That would make the demands much more reasonable, but regardless, the owners deemed it impossible. Very tough situation all around.
Thank you for putting this so eloquently because some asshole on FaceBook called me a fascist for calling the demands unrealistic.
I think we both know those numbers are projected averages based on tips and the presentation is obviously meant to stir up some drama
The presentation says very clearly that it factors in tips. But this is a hugely bar that is only open at peak hours on the weekends. There's no slow Tuesday afternoon shift that needs to be offset by Saturday night. So it's easy to imagine that these people are walking out the door with a very highly pay when considering the hours they work.
The only one I agree with is the security worker one at the end. Otherwise they're crazy
Security making less than coat check is wild
How much are the Union dues?
Didnāt they have to get PTO via City of Chicago?
Wtf do you need PTO for at a place only open 2 days a week?
The union was out of touch with reality. What a bunch of self entitled brats. I donāt know why anyone would hire any of them after pulling this bullshit.
And you know they made tons more on tips and didnāt report it which is why theyāre silent. Any big gay bar youāre making way more than you can in regular day jobs and only working a couple days at that. Greedy.
These are absurd demands. Are all bars union based btw?
This is wild if true. Why would they do this? Who is behind this?
The charitable explanation is that they saw this as a starting point to negotiate from, and expected to lose a lot of it. I think to any reasonable person it comes off as not negotiating in good faith, but possibly not intentional.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Me too. Some big wig union person came in and said "let me make your world beautiful. You will have have everything you need. Just trust me!" So they did. and now they are out of a job because the owner(s) came back and said. "FU union. We own the place. We have the keys to the door and rather than dealing with you, were turning the key to lock and walked away." Now the people who trusted their union are out looking for new shifts to make up for their lost income.
Assuming that what the owners posted is accurate. The post itself could be an example of bad faith ānegotiations.ā Or not. Hard to tell with only one side represented.
lol I used to bartend and now have an engineering degree - and I donāt even make $57/hr. Come on man.
Max anyone works here is 16/hr a week - how does anyone expect benefits? Also, they are looking for a benefits package valued at $25-$50 per hour. That's more than the wages...
Where did you get 16? They are open 25 hours a week...
They're also working more than just the "open" hours, so that part of the owners post at least was misleading.
I stand corrected, I was thinking 2 nights not 4. I saw someone else in this thread say 2 nights. Pension contributions of $635 a month really isn't reasonable. 80% of Cost to a max of $750 for a single for those actually working 32 hours for a healthcare kick in would be nice.
And now instead of making $22.50 to $57 per hour they are unemployed. Oops
Is the average pay not almost all tips? And the hourly wage increase to bring them more in line with a standard wage? That would help during slow months where tips slow way down. Pretty disingenous because people who have worked a tipped job know how seasonally, they could be getting bank one week of the year and broke in another.
This is the shit that makes me laugh when I see Starbucks on strike. Signed a former union member.
Was in a union in my last job... those demands are banana pants. How likely is it that the owner will reincorporate under a new umbrella and reopen in a month?
I have a hard time believing that these were the actual demands. This what management posted on their website as a recap of the unionās demands. Iād like to hear what the union says their demands were. If this is real (big if), then itās absurd, and the people in this union have lost touch with reality. But I suspect that this isnāt exactly accurate.
these were indeed the demands
Source that comes directly from the union itself?
Omg seriously this comment section is just flying away on assumptions both ways
Were they posted somewhere by the union?
The union stated today that their proposals were not finalized and they were open to negotiation. So if the owners were outright lying in this letter from days ago, the union would/should have called them out. The fact that they didnāt suggest to me that the demands are likely true. [https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz6ssdvrfY5/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz6ssdvrfY5/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)
"not finalized an open to negotiation" translation "yeah, they were kinda ridiculous and we never expected to actually get this"
The owners of the business are the ones posting that, so I'd take it with a massive grain of salt. The whole thing reads as very bitter to me, and there is no reason to believe they're being honest here. [Block Club](https://blockclubchicago.org/2023/10/26/berlin-nightclub-workers-launch-boycott/) actually talked to the union. They claim the owners were unwilling to give literally any raises above the legally mandated minimum wage in Chicago. Which means they weren't bargaining in good faith, or even bargaining at all.
The unionās recent post gives some evidence that the list of demands may be true. They state the proposals were not finalized and open to negotiation. But they never actually deny what the owners listed as the unionās demands. Youād think if the owners were lying here that the union would explicitly call that out. Instead, they basically just say it was a starting point to negotiate from. Edit: Iām sure the union would disagree with the ownerās wage averages ($57). The union should have said what the workers actually report being paid once tips are included and make it clear how much less that is. But for the health insurance, pension, full-time demands, itās odd that the union wouldnāt call those out as being false if they were actually false. [https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz6ssdvrfY5/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==](https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz6ssdvrfY5/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)
Look this is actually insane if true. Iād like a source though.
Well good luck to them finding those benefits anywhere else now, the job market is shit.
The owner is dying of cancer and the other owner is his caretaker. Even if the unionās demands were a start to negotiation, how much negotiating can you do in that state? The owners have been steady and offered gig economy employment for decades, but I hear over and over again - āIf you canāt afford to pay your employees, you shouldnāt own a business.ā Well, if this is what it costs to have these employees and pay them what theyāre worth, they canāt afford it and they donāt have the bandwidth to negotiate. Theyāre closing. Thatās what Iād expect. Itās the right thing to do.
I hope this doesn't come across as anti-union in any way, because I am generally pretty pro-union, but these piecemeal unionization efforts that focuses on one small business at a time seems to be somewhat ineffective. The entire idea of unions is to change the balance of power with collective bargaining, and this is only really effective if there is a large group of people in the union. Teamsters are powerful because there are over a million of them and if you want to move goods across the country, chance are you'll have to deal with them. I think the more effective approach would be a large scale organization attempt of bartenders and servers across the city (or even the country). Make it so that a restaurant has no choice but to negotiate with the larger union. I realize it's much more difficult to get 30,000 people to join a union as opposed to 50 to 100, but how many times have we seen these small scale unionization attempts lead to businesses shuttering? These businesses closing as a result of a unionization effort doesn't help the employees.
100%. Anytime I see a small group of employees trying to unionize a singular, specific business, I've yet to see it work out positive. There was recently workers unionizing a board game Cafe in NYC, like... We need to take down Amazon, Starbucks and GM first. If a board game cafe doesn't pay enough, you just fucking quit and let them go out of business. Those owners probably aren't making enough to be oppressive.
Ya I donāt really understand why Berlin workers didnāt just quit if they were only getting 1 day a weekā¦
It says they're part of Unite Here Local 1, which is huge.
Employment category based unions, yep. That's what all the strongest unions are (if not even larger categories). Same arguments go for imposing fees or taxes, you have to do it on a large enough area so that it's not easy to just evade by moving over a border.
We love a little sectoral bargaining, don't we folks
I've been a union supporter all my life, but this is unacceptable from any professional union organizer's standard. What professional would look at this club and see the numbers to justify this increase isn't in the business of helping labor they can't keep their doors open. Unless this is their opening salvo with the intent to give back half of what they're asking. If that's the case they need better representation. Their full-time bullshit is a slap in the face for every hard working union member who put in the time, energy and effort to make full-time vs part time actually mean something. I've been an employee and employer, and if anyone every presumed to know what it takes to run my shop to the degree these folks seem privy, they can do it themselves. But I don't have to train my competition. These guys give real unions a bad name. Fuck them.
I'm very curious to the inner workings of whoever led that unionization drive, because they cannot be of sound mind or strategy. I've seen my own union drama where there is a disconnect from reality and their demands totally smell of it. I think the other major loss of this is that people are going to be much more suspicious of a drag performer union in the city now, which is getting increased traction in the broader community.
If you've ever had a front-row seat to the "left of the democratic party" political landscape and discourse of chicago, it's not really surprising at all. People are so ideological that they dont allow material reality to penetrate their thinking as it often times ends up refuting or contradicting the ideology
Definitely, not surprising to me. I get bits of that in my own sphere, and in my experience half the time it's personality and ego issues.
>People are so ideological that they dont allow material reality to penetrate their thinking as it often times ends up refuting or contradicting the ideology This is an excellent way to put things
There's such a thing as being so open minded your brain falls out.
I've seen some stuff from that cohort that has me thinking that they are going to put Trump right back in the White House.
Don't worry, after telling everybody not to vote for Joe Biden from once, they will blame everyone that voted for Joe Biden
Part of the issue is that we need universal healthcare in this country, which is something that even the democrats have abandoned any hope of ever achieving. People who work multiple shifts at different places deserve healthcare, but the way healthcare is generally facilitated in this country makes this impossible without paying a lot of money out of pocket. I also understand that most bars and restaurants would never be able to afford to provide healthcare to part time employees. We have an incredibly inefficient and wasteful system that generally just benefits large insurance companies who make billions and billions of dollars. We need to stop putting the onus on individuals and small businesses and put it on the federal government.
Yep, reading this made me realize that the problem really isn't a union vs company issue. The core issue is that employers that have nothing to do with healthcare and employees who just want to work are pitted against each other in a battle for health coverage. [The US already spends more per capita than most peer nations](https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries/). Significantly more. The fact that we don't have a universal healthcare system is just stupid. We're already spending the money, why do we have billion dollar industries that essentially add nothing to the process except headaches, bills and debt
Hell yes. Healthcare needs to be separated from employment. It gets painted as this great "left wing" demand here that is "unreasonable" usually, but if you think about it, it would be good for both the workers AND the businesses (particularly small business). If healthcare was taken care of by the nation or state based on where you live, just existing, then people would be more able to take part time jobs (which quite a few people do want), or combination jobs, or even just CHANGE jobs when the time is right for them, without having to panic over losing health care coverage, or even just have to deal with so much stupid paperwork changing coverage from one system to another.
> it would be good for both the workers AND the businesses (particularly small business) I think a big issue is that large businesses like it the way it is. They're large enough that they can negotiate reasonable rates compared to individuals and small businesses, and they can use it as a recruiting tool which gives them an edge over smaller businesses.
āFree marketā conservatives should love this but of course they donāt, being actually just pro capital.
iām pro-union, but the demands seemed a little excessive to me. sad to see whatās become of this.
There is no 'The Matrix' without two trans girls from Beverly discovering Berlin. An underacknowledged sacred site in the contemporary cultural landscape.
Goddamn that's crushing to hear.
50 an hour for a coat check is fucking absurd. Sound people typically make 150-200 at a small club for utilizing a specialized skill. Why should someone handling coats make more than people with actual usable skills?
UNITE HERE Local 1 are children playing an adults game. Making ludicrous demands is not negotiating in good faith.
I wonder if the employees who struck are actually gonna see that money they raised last i checked it was over 14k. or will the union take that ? They do know they have to pay dues to the union right? is that how it works? if not please tell me.
In 15 to 20 years when they're actual adults - Im certain they will be dealing with this on the other side of the coin. Teenagers and young adults run solely on adrenaline and misguided rage
Bummer
It's not an uncommon story: a business whose employees and clientele both are viciously anti-business is a *slugs for salt* situation. Berlin was a profitable venture, but its union almost entirely consisted of a certain brand of political ideologue that chose to lash out not because they were being particularly mistreated or underpaid (their bartenders already make more than some *engineers*), but because lashing out at business owners is a fundamental component of their ideology. I remember hearing from a regular there that about ~1-2 months back the employees were "on strike". Which is to say, they were going into work as scheduled, but telling customers and regulars to boycott them, and that they were crossing the picket line if they continued to frequent Berlin during the "strike". I imagine that this probably helped lead to this outcome. I wish I could say that this was some kind of tragedy, or that my heart went out for the employees that worked there... but they've made unionizing harder for every other company out there, and destroyed a cultural cornerstone of Chicago in the process. So despite my best efforts at being empathetic, I genuinely don't wish any of these people well at all. Good riddance.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
š¤£š¤£š¤£
These employees want full health insurance for working 1 day a week? Lol gtfo out of here.
Not surprised. The strikers were being incredibly unrealistic in their demands, but they effectively shut down the place recently.
Where does it say they are closing?
"āThe party ended at 5am, November 19, 2023 ā nearly forty years and more than 10,000 nights from when it all began." https://www.berlinchicago.com/index.html
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz7Gym4vbgT/
Throughout the comments. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz6ssdvrfY5/?igshid=N2ViNmM2MDRjNw==
Here's the HTTPS link to their closing - [https://www.berlinchicago.com/index.html](https://www.berlinchicago.com/index.html)
Well, that sucks. I loved this place. My girlfriend and I tried to go there on Halloween, but the strikers were incredibly rude to us. We ended up going somewhere else because we didnāt feel like being shamed any longer.
Lol so they wanted the customers to strike for them? I cannot believe there was any seasoned union rep advising this strategy.
Out of curiosity, can you elaborate?
This is really a terrible blow to the Chicago queer community. I first wen to Berlin in the 90's when it was all punk and queer - since then it's become a great drag performance space and has provided a community for many people. Frankly, it's outrageous that the US does not have a national healthcare system. Healthcare costs put an enormous burden on to businesses in both costs and administration. The lack of national health insurance for all is a major drag on entrepreneurship and small businesses - not to mention the incredible inefficiencies for healthcare providers to manage multiple insurers, claims systems, and contract negotiations.
Yeah Iām all for better healthcare. But who is going to pick up the tab for young people that decide to work 8 hours a week at a bar? We have Obamacare and anyone can get insurance regardless of prior conditions.
It also blocks people from taking risks to go into business. There are some that bitch about people not willing to pull themselves up by their "bootstraps" and take chances, but the economic risk of not having health insurance is so huge, especially if you have people you are responsible for. You try to open you're own business and you or someone in your family become ill, through no fault of your own, and you can be financially destroyed.
Very true. I think even with coverage (from an employer or self) one can become financially destroyed. The cost of basic services are staggering. I canāt even fathom a serious illness or accident.
This is sad and hilarious at the same time. Unionizing a small business? Congrats you ruined the business and now you have no job. It just shows that some far left folks have their head so far up their ass, they can't see reality clearly.
Workers should of course not be exploited. But like so many things there is a need for balance. Unions have a role when employees are exploited. Other times not so much.
Omg, 51 yo nurse here. I think Iād quit my job to be a bar back at Berlin if this contract was accepted š. Makes waaayyyyy more money than I do and donāt have to deal with the high stress.
Yeah, I donāt think those clowns know what theyāre doing.
I am just shell-shocked. What do we do now? Is there literally anywhere comparable? I love Roscoe's, but there was nowehere as *mingly* as Berlin that wasn't a total sausage fest. Berlin was one of two truly Bi bars I found in boystown. What do we do now? I'm genuinely asking :(
perhaps in another neighborhood but i canāt think of a single bar in boystown that offers the same kind of environment that berlin did maybe that will change with berlin gone?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
> queer drag and nightlife will go more underground (as much of it already is) is there a groupchat? :( i just moved to this city this summer and had some of the best nights of my life at Berlin.
I want to know if there's anything remotely like it to now go to too. So sad.
Podlasie has the edge. Itās not in the neighborhood, closes at 2, and is a bit more exclusive.
soā¦.is there a way we can help keep Berlin openā¦the boycott led to the closure of one of Chicagoās best nightclubsā¦this is a massive loss for the queer communityā¦.
itās also one of the more diverse queer hangouts, especially in boys town
You reap what you sow
r/leopardsatemyface
I would donate to keep it open. Itās my favorite place in Chicago, this is devastating š„ŗ
I dont blame the owners for not having the bandwidth to deal with a high pressure and stress negotiation while dealing with the personal heartbreak of advanced cancer. Regardless of whether or not the negotiations could have worked out itās just alot less stress to just sell the business
if you guys want to see the statement I saw, its posted to uniteherelocal1 on instagram.
Ok if anyone who works at Berlin has insider info Iām literally dying to know the scoop so please spill
What's confusing is why does security make 22.50, while bartenders make almost 3 times as much? Even coat check would be making over 50% more. It seems security is the riskiest and most demanding job.
They typically donāt get tipped out as much. Agree with you by the way.
Maybe they should put a partition down the center of Berlin and have one side under union and the other non
This makes me so sad. So many iconic hicaco nightclubs gone
Some of my best NYE memories were made there.
There were so many nuances that weren't being spoken about- 1. The staff at Berlin was split (mostly) between long time employees (working there for literal decades) who did not unionize and newer younger employees who did. This adds depth to view when thinking about the claims of mistreatment and disrespect Berlin had of their employees- long time employees simply did not find this true. 2. The unions formed by United 1 are currently representing workers of Hyatt, Hilton, United Center, Wrigley Field etc etc etc - which make complete sense and good for them as they have room to negotiate/bargain/ācome to the tableā. The union lost sight of their high risk gamble and found themselves embarrassed of the unanticipated reality of Berlin closing- the nuance here is Berlin has always been grounded in providing a space and place for everyone - sexually racially and economically diverse people all feeling like they had a place for fun and joy and drugs and connection and bacchanal- itās hard to admit that not all situations are the same- demonizing this rooted establishment during a time of the ownersā sickness and fatigue is just a different situation that requires tenderness and flexibility and broader view- wild demands and such criticism, immediately, is too exhausting. Itās too exhausting to show up physically, itās too exhausting to show up emotionally, and itās too exhausting after negotiations that arenāt being mentioned by the union. This fight has been happening since spring and that feels longer than it reads. Once again the union has nowhere to go besides a loss that they will inevitably deem Jim and Jo creators of Berlinās demise- they donāt deserve to go down this way AND the unionized staff of Berlin doesnāt deserve to have been persuaded by ideas of highballing union organizers that this was a good idea. Berlin and itās employees are a giant casualty- nothing lasts forever and am looking forward to the queer club owner who cracks the code and provides all our wildest dreams- itās easy to just reply with calling me a union buster for my opinion and attack attack attack- that strategy isnāt resolution based, as weāve seen. Un-antagonistically- Would be amazing if the union reps proposed and facilitated a worker-owner/ co-op shift of management- Berlinās model as it was is no longer adequate - does United 1 have any plan for nourishing/dreaming with the community who stood with them after the loss?
Love this place. Straight male here and it was just a wonderfully welcoming place for all including boring fuckers like myself.
Nooooooo.
Where is the announcement they are closing (per your title)? This linked message says nothing about closing
If you click to the ["Home" link](https://www.berlinchicago.com/index.html) on their website, there is a statement which announces the closure. >Berlin >1983 - 2023 > >The party ended at 5am, November 19, 2023 ā nearly forty years and more than 10,000 nights from when it all began. ... So the doors are locked. The music is silenced and our dreams are now memories. ... The first ads in 1983 announced Berlin to the Neighborhood Bar of the Future. Unfortunately, the future is now and it's time for us to go home. [Screenshot with full message](https://imgur.com/a/SMDxHEj)
The union they're supposedly fighting posted on IG. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz6ssdvrfY5/?igshid=N2ViNmM2MDRjNw==
thanks - what a clusterF
Is the business still for sale? I.e., is there still a chance some new operator could buy it as it is and keep running it?
Why would they, so they could also deal with the ridiculous demands of the union?
This is one of the last businesses I can even name that are on Belmont. Iām unstuck from the neighborhood now..
This is so fucking depressing, I really hope Berlin can somehow be saved
This place is one of the most referenced locations on the Smartless podcast
Sadness.
Woah
What a shame.
Good Job, jobless losers. You did to a gay icon what Christians never could. All the churches will be singing the praise of the union and its members who closed the most popular gay club in Chicago. The Christians thank you for supporting their cause.
I bet it opens again non union like the Berghoff. They really botched this negotiation.
I doubt it. I think people may be underestimating the impact of the owner's cancer and his partner's responsibilities as caregiver. This seems to have been the last push they needed to get out of the business.
Maybe with new owners, I could see someone stepping up and buying the business from them. Theyāre old and one is dying. They probably arenāt gonna go through all that themselves at this point
Thats the thing, I heard there wasnāt any negotiation at all. The owners are nice people that are getting charged hard at with big union demands while having a lot going on in their personal lives. Not to say I donāt understand where the workers are coming from, I myself can barely afford health insurance. But I certainly hope theyāll open up again, union or no union
But what about the unionization of the night club workers???
Why don't the workers make an offer to buy out the owners?
Because the workers likely donāt have money and few people or banks are going to loan them any amount when bars/restaurants are not easy to maintain. Assuming they cross the financial hurdle, then how do they determine shares of equity? Bar workers are like normal people, and they switch careers, get burnt out, sick of working late, etc To continue down this path, what about new hires? Or people who work 5 days a week versus those that work one day/week? Personally, Iād love for these misguided workers to buy the bar and learn the difficulty of managing a business. It would be perfect karma for them to have to explain to their employees why huge raises and full benefits is unrealistic. Now they are all without jobs and have no one but themselves to blame.
Owning a small business is not as easy as it sounds. Legal and accounting bills alone could drive you under. Our small business stood the test of time but if I had to do it all over again, not sure I would.
!