Workers at Ann Kim’s Uptown Minneapolis restaurant vote to unionize

Restaurant workers at Kim’s in Uptown Minneapolis voted to unionize Thursday, making the Korean-American eatery the first of chef Ann Kim’s restaurants to form a union.

Workers will join hospitality union Unite Here Local 17, which successfully unionized First Avenue employees last year and launched a union organization drive at Chef Daniel del Prado’s Colita and Café Cerés last week.

About 60 cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders and support staff work at Kim’s, and 65% voted in favor of unionizing, according to Unite Here.

“From the beginning, our goal has always been to give our team members the opportunity to participate in a fair election and cast their own vote,” Kim said in a statement. “It was important to me that everyone’s voice was heard. I respect the election results and look forward to working with the team as we move into the future.”

A group of workers on May 28 notified Kim’s management of their intent to unionize. Because Kim, as the employer, did not recognize the union, workers held an election per National Labor Relations Act requirements. They will now negotiate a contract.

“Since my first job in the service industry, I knew things had to change,” Kim’s bartender Aaron Rose said in a statement. “Restaurant workers don’t have to accept feeling disrespected, ignored or like the industry sees them as disposable, like I felt.

“Every step of the way, my coworkers and the community have given me the courage to continue. We have true solidarity. I look forward to bargaining in good faith and making Kim’s the best restaurant in the Twin Cities.”

The James Beard Award winner behind Young Joni, Pizzeria Lola and Hello Pizza, Kim had said publicly she did not believe workers needed to unionize. Privately, she and other Kim’s higher-ups encouraged employees to vote “no,” saying they believed they could address workers’ concerns — including respect, unstable hours and the restaurant’s service charge rather than a tipping model — without a union.

“If you vote ‘no’ and you don’t like what you see from us, you can always bring the union back,” Kim and her business partner and husband, Conrad Leifur, wrote in a message Saturday to workers that local restaurant industry Instagrammer Joe Rosenthal posted. “But once a union is in, they’re in for good. There is no automatic re-election, ever.”

Unite Here on Thursday called management efforts to encourage workers to vote against unionization “a persistent anti-union campaign.”

Workers can opt to “decertify” their union through an election, though not in the year following National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certification or during the first three years of a collective bargaining agreement, except during a 30-day “window period,” according to NLRB.

The union drive at Kim’s is part of a recent wave of labor organizing at Twin Cities restaurants, including a push to establish a Labor Standards Board that would study and recommend workplace regulations to city leaders. Restaurateurs have raised alarms about the proposal, saying additional regulations would hurt business.