A unionization election at Kaldi’s Skinker location is under investigation after UNITE HERE Local 74 challenged a number of votes. (Jun Ru Chen | Staff Photographer)

Workers at the Kaldi’s Coffee location on Skinker Boulevard have voted to unionize with UNITE HERE Local 74, but the final outcome of the election remains unresolved as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) investigates a set of challenged ballots that could determine certification of the results.

On Jan. 9, employees at the Skinker Kaldi’s Coffee cast ballots in an NLRB-supervised union election. According to official NLRB records, the initial tally showed 7 votes in favor of union representation and 2 against, among the 29 eligible voters, with no ballots designated as void. However, 19 ballots were challenged by UNITE HERE Local 74, greater than the margin between the “yes” and “no” votes, meaning the NLRB must resolve these challenges before certifying a result. The Board’s review of these ballots is ongoing, and no final tally or certification has been issued yet.

UNITE HERE Local 74 president Kim Bartholomew said many of the challenged ballots were contested because the union believes those voters were not properly eligible to participate. 

Bartholomew alleged that a large portion of the challenged ballots came from workers who had been scheduled to work at the location “right along the cutoff date of people being eligible to vote.” She also alleged other ballots were challenged because they belonged to employees who had worked at other Kaldi’s locations, rather than the Skinker store itself.

“We challenged it on different bases. Some of them were challenged because we believe they were supervisory. We challenged other folks that they had packed the location with people from different Kaldi’s locations that never worked at that location before. That was probably a bulk of the challenge balance,” Bartholomew said.

The union is gathering evidence to present to the NLRB in the coming weeks.

“They will investigate each challenged ballot to see if they should have been eligible to vote or not,” Bartholomew said.

She indicated that a final certification is unlikely until late February at the earliest due to “internal processes” of the NLRB.

Despite the reported vote count, Kaldi’s Coffee issued a statement to Student Life advising caution about declaring any outcome prematurely. The statement noted that the NLRB has not certified the election and that resolving the challenged ballots is a required part of the process.

“Any claim of a final result is premature. The NLRB has not certified this election,” the statement said.

The company also pushed back on claims that employees who worked across multiple Kaldi’s locations or were hired near the eligibility cutoff should be disqualified. According to Kaldi’s, the voter list was established by the NLRB based on employment as of a set date, and working at multiple store locations “is not a disqualifying factor to vote.”

“The NLRB resolves such disputes through its challenge process. We are following the established legal process and will abide by the result once it’s confirmed, ” the statement said.

Harry Campbell, a barista at Kaldi’s, said the workers expressed excitement immediately after the vote was counted. Campbell said employees were “elated” after the ballots were tallied. 

“We knew that we had made history organizing our service job,” Campbell said.

They highlighted the solidarity among co-workers and broader community support, including congratulations from local union supporters.

The unionization effort at Kaldi’s comes after workers and organizers from the Missouri Workers Center (MWC) organized and protested over the lack of air conditioning and drainage issues in the kitchen. Although the kitchen was initially expected to reopen after Labor Day weekend, Campbell said there is still no clear timeline.

“They’ve said that it’s almost ready to open a couple of times, but there’s no timeline on it,” they said.

Before the election, the union and several employees filed multiple unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that Kaldi’s illegally interfered with workers’ organizing efforts.

Some workers have accused Kaldi’s management of engaging in union-busting tactics. Bartholomew pointed to outside consultants that Kaldi’s brought in, alleging that the consultants discouraged workers from supporting the union. 

“They call them consultants. We call them a union-busting law firm,” she said.

She identified one consultant by name and said the person “was in there living with those workers every day trying to convince them to vote no.”

Campbell described similar experiences, saying the consultants held meetings with staff inside the store.

“If you went into the meeting, you would just kind of sit there, get a pretty boring lecture full of false information, and then immediately go back to all of your happy co-workers in the union and talk about all the lies that she was spreading,” they said.

However, Kaldi’s Coffee disputed these allegations. While union leaders described the consultants as “union-busting,” the company characterized their role as informational.

“To ensure our employees understand all the facts, we enlisted experts to speak with our employees and answer their questions,” Kaldi’s wrote. “Participation was completely optional, but we believe that a well-educated employee can make better decisions.”

In its statement, the company maintained that it respects employees’ legal right to organize and said it intends to follow federal labor law as the election process moves forward.

“Kaldi’s respects the rights of team members under federal law to discuss working conditions and make their own choices about union representation, and that the company will follow the established legal process,” it added.

For Campbell, the push to unionize is tied to job security and workplace protections. 

“Workers that do not have a union are at risk of being taken aside and fired with no explanation and no available recourse at any time,” they said. “I’m not afraid of retaliation because I’m in a union, organizing is my federally protected right.”

Campbell said they hope a contract would address pay, benefits, and scheduling.

“Once Kaldi’s stops stalling and finally meets us at the table, negotiations are going to bring a lot of things to light. We’re fighting for higher pay. We’re fighting for employer-paid health care and fair scheduling,” Campbell said. 

If the NLRB ultimately certifies the election in favor of union representation, Bartholomew said the next step would be collective bargaining with the company. 

“If it was certified for our party, we would send a demand letter to sit down to bargain a contract,” she said. “We would have proposal meetings with the workers, and we would bargain in good faith, and we would hope the company would do as well.”

Until then, the outcome remains pending as the NLRB reviews each challenged ballot to determine which votes will be counted toward the final result.