Workers at Kim’s Vote to Unionize

In a vote held on the evening of Thursday, June 27, a majority of the approximately 60 workers employed at Uptown Minneapolis restaurant Kim’s voted to unionize, calling on Vestalia Hospitality to recognize the union and negotiate a contract for better pay, more comprehensive benefits, and scheduling consistency.

Sixty-five percent of workers at James Beard Award-winning chef Ann Kim’s Korean American restaurant voted yes, according to Unite Here Local 17, the hospitality union representing more than 6,000 hospitality workers around the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro. It’s the latest in a service industry labor movement that has gained traction in the Twin Cities in recent years, at coffee shops, breweries, distilleries, and other food and beverage businesses. On June 18, workers at Daniel del Prado’s restaurants Colita and Café Cerés also announced their intent to unionize, hoping to gain a seat at the table to negotiate for higher wages, better health care plans, paid time off, and more consistent hours.

The vote took place days after food blogger Joe Rosenthal surfaced internal messages sent to staff over the last few weeks on his popular Instagram account. The messages show managers at Kim’s allegedly encouraging employees to vote against unionization, with outlined reasons to do so, and saying they believe the restaurant can meet workers’ needs without a union. One June 24 message from Kim and her business partner and husband, Conrad Leifur, says, “There are no guarantees, and by law, an employer is not compelled to agree to any union proposal. If a union’s promises sound too good to be true, it’s because they are.”

Kim’s bar lead Iain Knopp-Schwyn previously told Eater that Kim’s “is a really great restaurant to work at,” and that, ultimately, the push to unionize comes down to workers having a protected voice to ask for the things they want and need in a workplace.

“We want the restaurant to succeed; we just want it to succeed with all of us,” Knopp-Schwyn said.

Following the vote on Wednesday, Aaron Rose, a bartender at Kim’s, said: “I look forward to bargaining in good faith and making Kim’s the best restaurant in the Twin Cities.”