Brooklyn Strategist Owner Calls Police On Employee Walkout

On the rainy afternoon of September 28, Tabletop Workers United led a walkout at New York City-based board game cafe, the Brooklyn Strategist. This is the third such demonstration of the union’s month of action, which has staged walkouts at the network of board game cafes owned by Jon Freeman and Greg May to demand “an end to retaliatory discipline, delayed bargaining, and union-busting,” according to a union press release. However, this is the first time an elected official has attended one of the union’s actions. It is also the first time ownership has called the police on their employees.

Rascal has reported extensively on the union’s negotiation process, which has been the subject of significant scrutiny due to the antagonism of Freeman and May’s legal council, delays due to ownership vacations, and a total of nine Unfair Labor Practice charges filed with the with the National Labor Relations Board since December 2023, encompassing 17 total allegations. The Brooklyn Strategist location specifically filed four Unfair Labor Practices in August regarding unilateral policy changes and disciplinary actions, which the union claims “amount to union retaliation.”