Six Compliments Only employees and their supporters demonstrated outside the Dupont Circle sandwich shop on Saturday.

/ Irene Koo

Employees of beloved D.C. sandwich shop Compliments Only are trying to form a union and seeking a $21 per hour wage.

In late June, a majority of the workers — eight out of an estimated ten employees — first asked owners Pete Sitcov and Emily Cipes to recognize their union, but they declined, according to multiple workers. They went public with their union drive this past weekend, when employees, including several who walked off mid-shift, demonstrated at the Dupont Circle sandwich shop.

Compliments Only’s owners did not respond to repeated requests for an interview. But the owners did provide a statement to Eater, saying they respect their employees’ rights “to express their opinions in a lawful manner.” They did not share their thoughts, however, on their workers’ union drive, but emphasized they care about their employees.

Three employees and about two dozen supporters visited the sandwich shop Saturday with the intention of picketing if the owners again declined to recognize their union.

“We are going to ask you again to recognize us as a union and give us a wage increase,” employee Zach Slavin told Sitcov and Cipes, who were working that day. Cipes said it’s not something they can answer at the moment, as a few dozen people, including patrons and press, watched from inside the shop.

Seconds later, three employees from behind the counter walked off their shifts, leaving Sitcov, a manager, and two other employees to make sandwiches for the lunchtime rush. The six employees and their supporters then exited the shop to picket just outside. They picketed for roughly an hour as the shop remained open.

“This isn’t targeted towards Pete and Emily. This isn’t malicious in any way. I still hold a deep respect for the both of them,” says Dominic Pezzuto, who walked out Saturday. “It’s just that we’re unhappy. And we tried to come to them privately multiple times, and it just didn’t work. And it feels like our hand was pushed and we want to get recognized. We’re not going to back down.”

The employees started to talk about forming a union this past spring because the owners declined to meaningfully increase their wages when they individually asked, multiple employees say. They said their bosses offered $0.25 per hour increase or so, but that’s about it.

In June, when they asked for union recognition, they submitted a petition asking for that and a minimum of $21 per hour, according to multiple workers, but the owners said they couldn’t afford to at this time. Instead, the owners offered a $17 hourly wage, which left them feeling slighted because the city’s minimum wage was about to increase to $17 in July.

On July 6, they asked again for the wage increase, as well as collective bargaining agreement within 90 days. But their bosses did not give them clear answer, which prompted the July 15 demonstration, the employees said.

The Compliments Only owners told Eater that they have been committed to providing compensation and benefits “that are consistent with industry standards for small, local enterprises.” They declined to share compensation information about their employees, saying “personnel issues are private,” Eater reported.

“We recognize that, at times, good people with the best of intentions will encounter areas of disagreement. To that end, we respect, unconditionally, our employees’ right to express their opinions in a lawful manner, and wish them continued success as employees of Compliments Only,” the owners said in their statement to Eater.

Dominic Pezzuto says they earn the city’s minimum wage and struggle to afford to live in D.C.

If management doesn’t recognize their union through signed union cards, workers would have to file for a formal election through the National Labor Relations Board. (Workers generally dislike elections because the process is time consuming and slows down their momentum to bargain for a contract.) United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 400, which would be the bargaining agent if workers succeed in unionizing, says a majority of Compliments Only employees that are union eligible would sign cards.

Pezzuto started working at the shop in April and earns the city’s minimum wage of $17 an hour. They said they are struggling to find an apartment with their current hourly wage. But they hesitate to quit in search of a better-paying job, because they’d rather stay at Compliments Only and unionize so they can bargain for wages they think they and their colleagues deserve.

Slavin, who’s worked at Compliments Only for nearly two years and earns $17.50, feels similarly. He pointed out that the living wage in D.C. is $22 an hour for a childless adult, according to MIT’s living wage calculator. Slavin said he’s disappointed by the owners’ response thus far.

“We can’t afford $17 sandwiches like the shop sells,” he tells DCist/WAMU on Saturday. “It feels really unfair that we’re giving our labor and working really hard to make this place as great as it is and not being compensated adequately to live reasonably comfortable lives.”

Zach Slavin says he has three jobs and his part-time gig at Compliments Only pays the least. “This one is the most physically demanding and the hardest in a lot of ways. And it pays by far the least,” he says. “That is unfair, unfair for me and even more so unfair for my coworkers who are here full time.”

Sitcov and Cipes opened Compliments Only during the height of the pandemic, when they found themselves out of work with the closure of Coconut Club, where Sitcov was sous chef and Cipes a co-owner and general manager. The sub shop was located on 14th Street NW for more than a year, then relocated to Dupont Circle in 2022. It’s become a popular spot for breakfast and lunch since opening.

This weekend’s action garnered a lot of attention on social media in part because the establishment is a darling of the local food world. It just won a RAMMY Award, a local honor given out by the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington.

The discrepancy between the shop’s accolades and the workers’ pay is the motivation behind the union drive, multiple workers said.

“The work we do isn’t the bare minimum. So to be paid in that way is incredibly disrespectful,” says Critter Woodward, who’s worked at Compliments Only since it opened its Dupont Circle location and earns $19 per hour. “We are professionals. This is just as real of an industry as any other one. I love what I do. I’m good at it. I want to be doing it for a long time and I don’t feel supported to be doing it.”

Critter Woodward leads demonstration outside of Compliments Only. “The bottom line is we make Compliments Only what it is, and we want to be doing this for a long time,” they said. “But we need support. We need recognition of our union, and we need $21 an hour.”

Woodward says a union won’t only help them ensure higher wages but formalize workplace policies. There’s no structure in place for discussion or recourse, they said, which can lead to communication breakdowns.

Compliments Only is part of a greater trend of food service workers who’ve sought to unionize in recent years due to low pay and poor workplace conditions that’ve long plagued the industry. The workers are looking to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 400, which represents thousands of local grocery store workers. They labor group has also supported the employees of Politics and Prose, which secured a first contract last year.

This post has been updated to include comment from the owners of Compliments Only. 

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