About AFBU
Asheville Food and Beverage United is...
a worker-led trade union dedicated to advocacy, support, and empowerment of all service workers.
If you'd like to be a member of AFBU, you can see the homepage for details on signing up.
How We Formed
While there were efforts to organize food workers before 2021, AFBU formed after a call on Facebook for Asheville food and service workers to join together in advocacy. The first meeting in March 2021 in the River Arts district brought together 30 people. A core group of seven people met for about nine months, after which the group decided on a three-plank organizing platform:
Living wage for all food and service workers (as defined by Just Economics WNC)
Paid time off for sick leave (ironically rare for the one occupation most in need of it)
Fair scheduling (while this is loosely defined, it definitely rules out the common practice of issuing a weekly schedule a few hours before it starts)
In the course of canvassing restaurant workers onsite, it rapidly emerged that the main concern of workers at downtown independent restaurants was affordable parking. AFBU campaigned for reduced-price parking at the county parking garages (which had many empty spaces). About 80 people showed up at our August 2022 rally during the county supervisors meeting. The county instituted and later expanded, a reduced price for downtown lower-income workers.
This campaign, and other efforts, garnered local media attention in the Mountain Xpress, Asheville Citizen-Times, WLOS; and nationally with Politico magazine.
