More restaurant workers see organizing a union as the solution for better working conditions; workers are calling for respect, stability, and better pay and benefits

Minneapolis – More workers at leading Minneapolis restaurant groups are organizing to make their jobs better. The latest are workers at Colita and the four locations of Café Ceres – all establishments from prolific restaurateur Daniel del Prado. 

Colita and Café Ceres workers informed their managers on June 18th they each had supermajority support for joining UNITE HERE Local 17, calling on the employers to respect their decision, recognize their unions, and negotiate contracts. The announcement comes just 3 weeks after Kim’s workers, part of Ann Kim’s Vestalia Hospitality, announced their own effort to unionize. Like Kim, both del Prado and his Café Ceres partner Shawn McKenzie have been nominated for James Beard awards in recent years.

About 60 dishwashers, bartenders, cooks, and servers work at Colita. About 30 baristas work at the four Café Ceres locations across Minneapolis. A group of the workers participated in training programs with ROC MN about exercising their rights on the job, including their rights to collective and concerted action.

“I’ve been in the industry for 10 years. Before I started organizing, I lost hope that a food service job could ever be enough. Now I’m ready to see actual change,” said Mariam Karkache, a lead barista at Café Ceres. 

Sara Zabinski, a server at Colita, echoes the same. “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,” she said. “I really want to make Colita my career. A real career! I don’t see why the service industry doesn’t deserve that.”

Workers say they deserve better from one of the Twin Cities’ top hospitality companies on issues ranging from training and stability to respect.

“I have no job security. It makes me feel uncomfortable. I’m not spoken to respectfully, people don’t need to scream or swear at me. Once I made a mistake and I was told they were wrong to think I was a leader, that I don’t understand English. Before that I was being treated as a leader,” said Segundo Vintimilla, who has worked as a line cook at Colita for five years.

“I don’t think we get enough training, and things that we need to do our jobs have been broken. If I don’t get tables, I don’t make money, I can’t pay rent. Management needs to make sure people are trained so we are all successful,” said Silvia Jimenez, a server at Colita.

Across restaurant departments and cafés, workers want more consistency so they can pay their rent, qualify for benefits, and plan for their lives. The hours threshold to qualify for company insurance has recently increased.

“Because of my health issues, now I’m not hitting the hours I need to qualify for benefits. I’m still paying off a hospital bill from a few years back. It’s stressful,” said Zabinski. “It’s like I’m barely scraping by all the time. I’m organizing because I need stability and reliability to support a full life for myself, instead of the partial life I feel like I’ve been living.”

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UNITE HERE Local 17 is Minnesota’s hospitality workers’ union, representing over 6,000 workers in hotels, airport restaurants, sports stadiums, craft beverage makers, university cafeterias, and more.

Restaurant Opportunities Center of Minnesota (ROC MN) is a non-profit Worker Center that educates and trains service industry workers to improve their working conditions and mobilizes community support for their efforts.

ROC MN and UNITE HERE Local 17 share a long-term commitment to improving working conditions in the Twin Cities service industry.