Workers at Daniel del Prado’s Colita, Café Cerés seek to unionize

About 90 workers at acclaimed chef Daniel del Prado’s Colita restaurant and Café Cerés are seeking to unionize.

Employees at the south Minneapolis Mexican eatery and four cafe locations notified management Tuesday of their intent to form a union, citing concerns including training, job stability and respect.

“Before I started organizing, I lost hope that a food service job could ever be enough,” said Mariam Karkache, a lead barista at Café Cerés, in a statement. “Now I’m ready to see actual change.”

Del Prado and a representative for DDP Restaurant Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Del Prado’s family of fine dining destinations includes several eateries and cocktail spots, Colita sister restaurants Martina, Rosalia, Cardamom and Porzana among them. The two-time James Beard Award finalist recently announced another project, Dexter’s, billed as an elevated bar experience.

The unionization effort at Colita and Café Cerés is the latest in a wave of labor organizing among service workers at well-known Minneapolis restaurants and entertainment venues, including First Avenue in November and Kim’s, James Beard Award-winning chef Ann Kim’s Uptown restaurant, in May.

“I’ve been in the industry for about 10 years now, and I’ve gone from shop to shop. It always feels like the grass could be greener. But in reality, the problems are there in every shop you go to,” Colita server Sara Zabinski said in a statement. “I really want to make Colita my career. A real career! I don’t see why the service industry doesn’t deserve that.”

As at First Avenue and Kim’s, the nonprofit Restaurant Opportunities Center of Minnesota trained a group of Colita and Café Cerés workers as they prepared for their union drive. If successful, the staff — including dishwashers, bartenders, cooks, servers and baristas — would join Unite Here Local 17, a hospitality union that represents workers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and stadiums, hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs across Minnesota.

Under the National Labor Relations Act, employees can begin bargaining if their employer recognizes their union. If that doesn’t happen, workers must hold a union election, which would start with filing a petition with the National Labor Relations Board.