Organizing Lush Cosmetics
Gwendolyn Benton
9/4/2024
Over the 10+ years I’ve been in the workforce, I have been exposed to different environments, people, and work settings. Early on, I noticed that there was a common trend in every workplace where workers are exploited financially, emotionally, and/or physically. These experiences have led me down a long road of dead end jobs and unfulfilling career paths to the final destination-burnout. Over the past few years, I have been educated on the concept of labor unions through talking to older coworkers and through friends who were active union members. This led to tense conversations with my fellow coworkers. Sometimes it would move towards discussion about organizing. However, more often than not, I was explicitly told to keep my mouth shut or risk losing my job. Eventually, I found a workplace of like-minded people that were already motivated to make a change. They needed someone to help solidify their cause who had the motivation to push through roadblocks and backlash. My name is Gwendolyn Benton (she/her), and I have been the chief bargaining committee member for Lush Cosmetics.
Everyday, multi-billion dollar corporations invest egregious amounts of money into fostering fear and misinformation about labor unions. As a result, they ensure that their choke-hold on the working class remains firm. As you may know, unions are crucial to a strong and empowered working class; the need for their existence gets stronger in each passing year. This article will explore my experience working towards and successfully unionizing two stores within Lush, as well as the importance of worker solidarity and strategic organization efforts with the safety of workers at the forefront.
When participating in my first round of negotiations with the company, I felt like a fish out of water. The endless piles of paperwork, proposal drafts, and general sense of intimidation felt from the company were enough to make me want to tuck tail and run for the hills. But, as time went on, I received council, advice, and coaching from our reps within the UFCW, and became more confident in my understanding of the process as well as my ability to advocate for my coworkers. This confidence is absolutely crucial when you’re in active negotiations with a major corporation. The company will almost always say things or push proposals at the table that will feel like a punch in the gut. I personally have heard some very frustrating and sometimes unprofessional language from the company and their lawyers during negotiations. The company would complain about not being able to keep any employee for more than a few months, then turn around and call their own workforce “ultimately just a bunch of college students working a temporary job to get through school, and in the end we see them as replaceable.” This is far from the truth. Yes, some of our workers are college students, but a majority of the workforce is not. Also, the notion that being college students renders us replaceable or unworthy of fair working conditions is an incredibly dehumanizing and disgusting thing to say as a business professional. It was genuinely gutting to hear how the company truly thought of us, especially a company that prides itself on its ethics and supposed quality of life for its workers. However, as much as it hurt me on a personal level to hear that, I had to keep my calm. I had to take some deep breaths and tell myself that they were just fishing for a reaction. My job was to simply listen to the company, take notes, and develop a response that would best serve the interests of my coworkers while also keeping their jobs safe. This is where strategic negotiating becomes crucial.
We see so many news stories about strikes, work stoppages, and walkouts. These can absolutely be powerful tools used by the workers to try and sway the company to their needs and demands. But, these tactics can also do more harm than good if they’re not used strategically, especially if you are dealing with a smaller workforce.
When negotiating on behalf of a small workforce, you need to be absolutely certain that a strike or any other action taken against the company is the only viable option. If you don’t play your cards right and don’t have complete solidarity with your workers, the picket line will fail, and if the picket line fails then the company will take more severe actions to squash the organization efforts of its workers. This can look like mass layoffs, hiring scabs, lockouts, or store closures. This ultimately benefits no one and will only serve to sour the attitude of the workers towards the union as well as sully any future chances at unionization. As much as it might feel good at first to go on strike or take explicit action against a company, it is hard. You’re putting people’s jobs on the line and you’re putting the solidarity of your workforce on the line. Explore all other options before resulting in militant action; even if it means taking a sub-par compromise to get a contract put in place. Once that contract is ratified, the union is empowered to fight for the rights of workers in a way that cannot be ignored. I know this is probably not the stance you would expect from someone who is a self proclaimed anarchist. Believe me, I relish nothing more than throwing a big middle finger in the face of corporate bigwigs whose only concern is profits over people. But when you’re holding the livelihoods of other people in your hands, you have to take a more strategic approach. If it comes to taking it to the streets with signs and bullhorns then may we be blessed with the solidarity and longevity to weather out the storm. Otherwise, it is often more beneficial to explore any and all options to solidify a contract, if only to protect yourself and your fellow coworkers so that you may live to fight another day.
Despite all the time and effort dedicated by bargaining committee members, they are not the only ones who are out there fighting for workers rights. All of the work they do doesn’t mean anything if the workers they represent are not all on the same page. When a store makes the decision to unionize and begin the bargaining process, the workforce enters a very vulnerable state. The company will usually take great offense to its workers unionizing and will do everything in their power to stop it. This often involves striking out at the workers directly which can disrupt the organization process, cause breakdowns in solidarity, and ultimately cause the downfall of the unionization efforts. Because of this, it is important that open and healthy conversation is fostered in the workplace. A lot of the time, workers who are opposed or on the fence about the union are only so because of simple lack of education or miss-education due to efforts by corporations to downplay the benefits of an organized workplace. This is where patience is key. You will probably run into coworkers who might get ugly or frustrated with you trying to talk to them. Just take your time and listen to their concerns so you can help clarify an confusion on their end. Ultimately, however, this won’t always work. There will always be workers who don’t choose to support the union. In these circumstances it is best to still do what you can to support them and show that the union is there to advocate for them even if they don’t openly support the cause. Either way, it’s always better to not isolate workers who aren’t openly supportive because that will only cause division in the workplace.
I know there’s been a lot discussed in this article, and a lot of it probably seems scary or daunting at the very least. But, if you take away anything from this article, take away this; Corporations are scary yes, but they are made up of the few that have hoarded power. The working class has strength in numbers on their side. That is how we win. Not through the actions of a few but from the solidarity of the many. Invest in your workplace. Talk to your coworkers. Listen to the hard questions. Create space for anyone and everyone to vocalize concerns or frustrations. Then turn those frustrations into action. More importantly, don’t just turn it into action in your own workplace; Get involved outside of work. Look into local advocacy groups for workers rights. Join fellow workers from other sectors on their picket line, or help out with handbilling efforts. We can only secure a more safe and more equitable future when we put in the work needed to defend ourselves against those that would seek to exploit us for our labor.
