Labor from p 18 Stahl joined the union’s negotiating committee. Unite Here! was pushing for the usual asks of a contract: higher wages and cheaper health insurance. But HMS Host, even as travel began to return to pre- pandemic levels, was stonewalling. The situation boiled over in November 2021. Stahl remembers the energy of the picket line on the first day of the walkout. The strike lasted for 10 days, drawing headlines across Arizona and fueling a subsequent strike by HMS Host workers in Los Angeles. “We knew what we were standing up for was deserved four years ago and was four years too late,” Stahl said. That, she added, is “what kept the fire going.” The strike continued day and night outside the airport through the busy Thanksgiving weekend. Stahl spent her days marching, chanting, and speaking to media. When the workers eventually returned to the negotiating table, things were “tense,” Stahl recalled. But ultimately, they scored a victory. “[HMS Host managers] magically were able to reach into their back pocket and find the money for the things we’d been asking for,” Stahl said. The new contract was ratified just weeks later. Now, baristas with HMS Host start at $15.50 an hour. The cost of health insur- ance went down. The union won a legal fund for its workers. Stahl is currently on leave from her Unite Here! HMS Host job and working as an organizer with Unite Here! She still keeps a close eye on working conditions at Sky Harbor. “It’s not perfect, by any means,” Stahl said. “We still face issues. There are still things that come up. But more people have found their voice.” The solidarity she had seen from the city, she said, taught her that Phoenix was, at its heart, a “union town.” Anissa Keane: ‘Even I was Scared’ When Anissa Keane began working as a budtender at the Emerald Dispensary in Gilbert, it was a small, independent shop. Victoria Stahl was part of union negotiations at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport that resulted in improved starting wages. Recreational pot wasn’t yet legal in Arizona. But the cannabis industry in Arizona — now a billion-dollar market — was starting to take off. In 2019, shortly after Keane began at Emerald, the dispensary was acquired by Curaleaf, the biggest cannabis company in the U.S. Keane welcomed the sale. Curaleaf taking over, she thought, could mean higher wages or better benefits. But little changed. The company, she recalled, was still starting employees at around $12 or $13 per hour. At that time, there was no union for dispensary workers in Arizona. But Keane believed that the industry would be better for it. “I thought we deserved better. We’d been working hard. Our business had tripled,” she said. She floated the idea of a union in November 2019, but began to organize seriously during the pandemic when coworkers were frustrated by what they saw as lax safety protocols. She wasn’t anticipating Curaleaf’s reaction. Keane was in touch with United Food and Commercial Workers, an established union that provided guidance. Her coworkers were young and open-minded. They were receptive to a union, she said. As Keane collected union cards, management caught wind of the drive. At a mandatory July 2020 meeting, a human resources representative for Curaleaf told employees that if they unionized, they would lose their tips, Keane later testified in court. She implied that Keane was only organizing the union so she could get a job with UFCW. “After that [meeting], even I was scared, because I couldn’t afford to lose my job at that time,” Keane said. She took a step back from organizing. Then, in August 2020, Keane miscounted the cash in her drawer by $20. It was a minor error, and her direct >> p 23 20 SEPT 8TH–SEPT 14TH, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
