[_aavaa_]

This is a collective action problem. "They can't fire everyone" only works if everyone (or enough people) demand the change at once. If the unionization attempt happens one store at a time, Chipotle can close them one at a time. And it's gonna get harder and harder to get the next store to try unionizing after they just saw the previous X all get closed down.

[atwood22]

Depends how hard it is to get another job. I doubt many people are particularly attached to a job at Chipotle. Forcing the store to shut down is more power than the average Chipotle worker has.

[_aavaa_]

Either you or I (or both) are misunderstanding each other’s comment.

My point was exactly that. At a store by store level, the workers have much less power than Chipotle. Even if they vote to unionize the store one at a time, Chipotle still wins if chipotle choose to close the store since it’s less costly for them to open a new store than it is for the workers to find a new job.

[atwood22]

My point is that getting a new job may actually be easy (given the current unemployment rate), so it could still be worth unionizing even if you know they will close the location.