Seattle’s Homegrown cafe workers vote to unionize

Cafe workers at Seattle-based sandwich maker Homegrown voted to form a union Thursday, with an 84% tally in favor, counted at the National Labor Relations Board office in downtown Seattle.

Workers at the company’s wholesale division also won an election to unionize in November.

Homegrown CEO Brad Gillis did not respond to requests for comment.

Ivy Vance, a worker at Homegrown’s Queen Anne location, said workers are “ready to start negotiating a fair contract as soon as possible.”

Homegrown is a sustainable sandwich maker based in Seattle with five locations across the city. It has hundreds of employees, according to its LinkedIn profile. Its divisions include cafes and wholesale distribution. Homegrown sells sandwiches under several brands, such as Molly’s, to other cafes, universities and hospitals.

In August, truck drivers of the now-unionized wholesale division went on strike against surveillance technology installed in their vehicles, including 4-inch cameras that tracked eye movements, facial recognition technology and microphones. 

The drivers said the surveillance systems were in response to workers’ movement to unionize. The cameras and microphones were removed from their trucks nearly 10 days later.

Before the cameras and microphones, drivers had asked for better vehicle maintenance — their complaints varied from broken headlights to brake issues that could make the truck unsafe to drive — as well as better benefits and higher wages. The lowest-paid workers received $16 an hour. Workers demanded a wage floor of $20 an hour.

In early June, Homegrown workers delivered notice that they intend to form a union. A few days later, Seattle City Council members published a letter asking CEO Gillis to not interfere with the employees’ choice.