Chipotle Settles Charges It Closed Store to End Union Campaign

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. agreed to pay $240,000 to former workers at a shuttered Maine location to resolve federal charges that the company illegally closed the store to squash a union organizing drive.

Chipotle will put the 24 ex-workers from the Augusta location on a preferential hiring list for other locations in the state, according to the National Labor Relations Board settlement agreement that the Maine AFL-CIO made public Monday.

The NLRB verified the agreement.

Although the Augusta store will remain closed, effectively killing that union campaign, the settlement could give a boost to organizing at other Chipotle locations.

“When ...