Nearly a dozen workers of Union Kitchen stores seeking to unionize went on strike over the weekend to protest management who they say is union-busting and retaliating against them.

On Jan. 28, workers of the food accelerator’s stores at Eckington, 9th, and 3rd streets announced they are unionizing for better wages and scheduling. Two people leading organizing efforts say they’ve received disciplinary notices in the week since filing union petitions with the National Labor Relations Board. These workers say they’d never before been written up in their one-to-two years of employment at Union Kitchen.

CEO Cullen Gilchrist declined to comment on the specific allegations, saying “we would never talk about an employee outside the company.” He adds, “We will never intimidate, threaten or make promises to fight a union. We want the will of the majority of Union Kitchen staff to be heard, and will continue to work to ensure we cultivate a positive culture.”

Saturday morning, several workers announced they were going on strike. “We believe in a better Union Kitchen, and that silencing and retaliating against workers who want to make Union Kitchen a better place to work takes the company in the wrong direction,” says a letter signed by 12 employees from two of the three organizing stores.

According to organizers, 11 workers who signed the letter ultimately withheld their labor Saturday and Sunday. The other employee’s mother threatened to withhold her student loan payments if she didn’t return to work.

Gilchrist says the vast majority of workers did not participate in the strike. “We will continue to dialogue with this small group of team members on their concerns,” he says, “and will also continue to ensure the feedback of the other 95% of our staff is heard as well. We want 100% of our team to feel valued and important at Union Kitchen.”

Worker Gabe Wittes, one of the organizers who said he was retaliated against, says Gilchrist is able to downplay the support for their union because management is hiring more people. He says management just hired three more workers, “attempting to dilute our majority and add anti-union voters.” In response, Gilchrist says the company is not hiring anymore than is customary.

Dozens of people rallied outside the 9th street location on Saturday in a show of solidarity with workers on strike. Members of various labor groups attended, including the Politics and Prose bookstore union and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400, the regional union that will be the collective bargaining agent for Union Kitchen employees.

Rally goers chanted, cheered, and shared stories on the importance of unions. At one point, two members of management greeted rally goers and offered them coffee — to which one union supporter responded, “Don’t accept scab coffee.”

When asked about their impressions of the strike and union drive, members of management — Union Kitchen vice president, Elena Rosenblum, and District store manager, Michael Bouchard — told DCist/WAMU they simply want to support everyone on the team. They also defended Union Kitchen as an employer, saying the company offers workers promotion opportunities and, soon, a starting salary of $18.

“From my personal experience here, it’s been just a great, great time,” says Bouchard, who started off making lattes and sandwiches in Nov. 2019.

“I do genuinely believe we all want a positive outcome and just see maybe different structures and tools to achieving that,” adds Rosenblum.

The impetus for employees to unionize was in part because of wages. Union Kitchen is eliminating the option for patrons to tip, meaning workers could be looking at a paycut. Employees also say they’re organizing because they too believe in the company’s mission of supporting local entrepreneurs. (Union Kitchen’s accelerator helped food startups like EatPizza and M’Panadas.) They asked Gilchrist to voluntarily recognize their union, so they don’t have to hold a formal election, but he’s declined. Gilchrist says he’s “looking forward to our team expressing themselves through a democratic process.”

Several employees see management’s actions in recent days as undermining any union election through the National Labor Relations Board.

“This is union busting because they’ve been approaching the people that have been most vocally pro-union, wearing union paraphernalia in the stores and explicitly threatening our jobs,” says Wittes, who striked over the weekend.

He says management approached him several days after the union drive was announced to issue him a formal disciplinary notice — his first since starting at Union Kitchen in December 2019. According to Wittes, he received a written notice for entering Gilchrist’s office “through the wrong door” and without a hairnet or lab coat when he and his colleagues attempted to deliver union-authorization cards Jan. 27. Wittes says he’s done that before without getting in trouble. Per the employee handbook, Union Kitchen has an open door policy.

Management also recently escalated a verbal warning against Wittes in the web platform the company uses for human resources, he says. According to him, what was an informal reprimand last week for telling a customer to wear a mask in an “aggressive tone” turned into a warning that was logged in the system this week.

“The only conclusion that I think can be drawn is that I’m being targeted — threatened with termination — for my role as organizer,” says Wittes.

Wittes is not alone. Rob Ballock claims he’s being retaliated against, receiving disciplinary notices for the first time in his more than one-year tenure at Union Kitchen. He says others in his store are also getting reprimanded more easily than before, like for being a few minutes late.

“They haven’t said exactly what the punishment escalation will be,” says Ballock.

Union Kitchen employees are “at-will” employees, meaning management can terminate someone for no reason and at any time, with or without notice, which is something workers are hoping to address through collective bargaining.

When asked if he’s worried about further retaliation for striking, Ballock says “due to the outpouring of support that we’ve seen … it would be incredibly unwise.”

Several workers first accused Gilchrist of union busting when organizing efforts were officially announced, because the owner immediately met one-on-one with workers and questioned the need for a union.

Meanwhile, Gilchrist takes issue with the characterization, saying he’s meeting with employees in the spirit of having an open dialogue.

“People can call it whatever they want, however they want, but we’re going to keep working and building a great team,” Gilchrist says.

This story has been updated to include information about the strike and rally. It was also updated to correct that Wittes was reprimanded for asking a customer to wear a mask.