Workers at Kaldi’s Skinker Boulevard location appear headed to unionization.
On Friday, workers at the St. Louis specialty coffee chain location voted 7-2 in favor of unionization with the National Labor Relations Board. The results are not yet certified, however, and the union is challenging five ballots that it said were from employees who shouldn’t have been eligible to vote.
The NLRB and Unite Here Local 74 are accusing Kaldi's of anti-union actions, including bringing in new or transferred employees in order to sway the outcome of the vote.
“We've got to go through the labor board and dispose of those challenge ballots,” said Kim Bartholomew, president of Unite Here Local 74. “Either the labor board is going to say, ‘Yep, they should have voted,' or 'No, they shouldn't have voted.'”
The union and workers have filed multiple unfair labor practice charges against Kaldi's in the runup to the vote. Kaldi’s did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the accusations.
With such a small group, those five ballots have the potential to sway the outcome of the effort. But Bartholomew said organizing small groups is common when working with bars and restaurants.
“This is just normal for us,” she said.
Still, the workers are celebrating the vote as a win.
“Today’s vote proves that workers are stronger united and that when we stand together, we win,” said Aliyah Wilcox, an employee at Kaldi's Skinker shop and Missouri Workers Center leader, in a statement. “We will keep fighting for better conditions at the workplace that we love, and we hope that Kaldi’s will stop fighting us and start negotiating. We love this community and we’re here to stay.”
Workers from eight Kaldi’s locations announced the unionization plan and rallied against the company in November. The Skinker location is the first to hold a vote. The workers cited low pay and poor working conditions as reasons for the union effort.
