Craig’s Cookies workers vote to unionize at 5 Toronto stores as franchise expands nationally

About 90 Craig's Cookies employees have voted to unionize five Toronto stores as the Canadian chain expands nationally.

After a two-week organizing campaign that began in early December, more than 85 employees voted last week to join Unite HERE Local 75, which represents food service and hospitality workers.

Employees work at five Craig's Cookies stores across Toronto: East York, Church-Wellesley, Leslieville, Parkdale and Union Station.

“The most immediate factor — kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back for these workers — was the decision to eliminate paid breaks,” said Daniel Janvier, a researcher for Unite HERE Local 75 who helped organize the campaign.

Workers are also concerned that their wages are not keeping up with inflation and are no longer competitive with the broader food service industry, Janvier said.

“The company is growing. It's incredibly successful. It's because of these employees,” he added. “These employees know what they are putting into the company, which is why they have such expansive growth in the city and even in the country.”

A spokesperson for Craig's Cookies told CBC News that the company respects the vote and the workers' decision to unionize and that it will work with the union in good faith.

“Craig's Cookies has always been committed to competitive compensation that includes comprehensive benefits and fair treatment of team members,” the spokesperson added.

The spokesman didn't add anything more when asked to respond to the union's claim that the company has stopped paying breaks.

Craig's Cookies is owned by Craig Pike, who launched the chain as a home baking business in 2013. Although it operated primarily as a pop-up model for the first few years, the first brick-and-mortar location of Craig's Cookies opened in Toronto in 2018.

It has since expanded to 22 stores nationwide. Most live in Ontario, with the rest in Calgary and Pike's hometown of St. John's. A 23rd store is expected to open in Halifax in the new year.

'Pretty unique' for the Canadian food service industry

For a growing business that is expanding but may not yet have a strong HR system in place, consolidating multiple stores under one collective bargaining agreement may be an attractive option, according to one expert.

“Once you reach that scale, it will be difficult to operate as a family business and workers [demands] grow,” said Rafael Gomez, director of the Center for Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto.

“Unless you have a complex HR system, the union model is attractive to workers.”

Craig's Cookies operates partly through a franchise model, meaning the corporation licenses its brand and products to individual store owners. That won't change with the collective bargaining agreement, but Gomez notes it could scare off some potential franchisees.

“On the other hand, this may not be the case. The collective agreement also simplifies many things. You really don’t need your HR team when the union and collective bargaining agreement have essentially determined most of the working conditions,” he said.

Data from Statistics Canada shows that union membership has declined. on the decline in Canada since the 1980s, where private sector workers are less likely to be covered by a collective bargaining agreement than their public sector counterparts.

In particular, in the catering sector, the level of coverage is low – only 5.2 percent In 2023, trade unions were created in the industry. So the unionization of dozens of Craig's Cookies workers is “pretty unique from that perspective,” Gomez said.