MINNEAPOLIS — About 60 workers at Kim's restaurant in Uptown Minneapolis are now members of a union after a historic vote Thursday.
The cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders and support staff are now preparing to negotiate a new work agreement after 65% of them voted to unionize under UNITE HERE Local 17, Minnesota's hospitality and craft beverage workers union. They will push owner Ann Kim to provide better pay and benefits, along with more respectful treatment and stability.
“I started organizing because I was tired of worrying about my income week to week. I’ve been devoted to hospitality for 20 years, I felt it was time I got some devotion back," said Kaylee Murphy, Kim’s bartender and server in a statement distributed by Local 17.
“Since my first job in the service industry, I knew things had to change. Restaurant workers don’t have to accept feeling disrespected, ignored or like the industry sees them as disposable like I felt," added Aaron Rose, Kim’s bartender. "I look forward to bargaining in good faith and making Kim’s the best restaurant in the Twin Cities.”
Along with Kim's, owner Ann Kim operates Young Joni, Hello Pizza and Pizzeria Lola.
The momentum of unionizing is of concern to some restaurant owners and chefs in Minneapolis, a number of whom gathered to last week to speak out against a measure that would create a Labor Standards Board in the city. The board would recommend changes in food industry regulations, including raising the minimum wage. The idea of this type of oversight board was encouraged by labor unions.
"I think there is some misconception that if you run a restaurant, you are some types of millionaires and you just don't want to share it with people," Chef Gustavo Romero said. "And that's just not the case."
There is a genuine fear that restaurants will pull out of Minneapolis, according to Romero. He and his wife, Kate Romero, started their restaurant business Oro by Nixta during the pandemic. They just recently were a James Beard Award finalist for best new restaurant.
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