AUSTIN, Texas — Workers at another Alamo Drafthouse location in Austin are seeking to unionize following company-wide layoffs back in January.
Employees at the Slaughter Lane location sent a letter to Alamo Drafthouse management on Monday, saying that they deserve to have notice if the company decides to lay people off.
“If they had given us at least two-weeks notice that layoffs were coming, it would have let people here make plans for their future, cash their PTO out,” said Samuel Polay, an employee at Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane.
Polay says one of the servers at the Slaughter Lane location was among those laid off in January, but he was told by managers that he should quit his second job, so he could work better hours at Alamo. Polay and the other employees are hoping their unionizing efforts will prevent something like that from happening again.
In their letter, the Slaughter Lane union points out that the employees have been struggling among the rising cost of living in Austin. They also point to some of the issues with the Alamo’s 18% service fee.
Alamo used to pay servers $2.15 an hour plus tips, but Polay said during slow periods that’s not nearly enough to earn a livable wage. After the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse location unionized in 2022, Alamo added an 18% service fee on tickets to increase wages.
However, Polay says because the fee looks like “automatic gratuity” to customers, they don’t tip like they used to.
“I think guests need to be told where their money’s going and how it’s being used,” Polay said.
Polay also said it creates more issues because the money collected from the service fee gets pooled between the locations and doesn’t go to the specific theater that earned the money.
“That means that venues like ours and South Lamar’s that are very busy, very profitable venues, our service fee is being used to cover labor at venues that are not performing well,” Polay said.
Although it was one step toward more livable wages, Polay is hoping their union can help push management for more.
The letter also pointed out that there has been a delay for critical upgrades they need for their theater. Polay says he feels that corporate has been preventing local managers from upgrading and getting new equipment they need for their employees and venues.
“Because the company is just so centralized at the top, they’re just begging for basic stuff,” Polay said.
The Slaughter Lane Alamo Drafthouse will be the second location in Austin to unionize. Right now, they are waiting for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to set a date for an election, so they can start bargaining with Alamo Drafthouse in good faith.
“The company loves to make a big deal about their core values, one of them is ‘Do the right thing,'” Polay said. “I don’t think that laying off a quarter of your company with no notice unless you’re legally required to, because some stores happen to be unionizing, is the right thing.”
Sony Entertainment bought Alamo Drafthouse last summer. KVUE reached out to a spokesperson for the company, but had not heard anything back by the time of publication.