LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A group of Heine Bros. workers seeking to unionize said they were "blindsided" by the abrupt closure of the coffee chain's 21-year-old Douglass Loop location Thursday, which they called "suspicious" amid their months-long organizing campaign.
Heine Bros. said it closed the store at 2200 Bardstown Road because it lacks a drive-through lane, which boosts sales. In a news release Thursday, the homegrown coffee chain said it was turning over the lease to TEN20, a Butchertown craft brewery that plans a taproom in the storefront.
At least four former employees of the coffee shop and a few dozen other supporters of their organizing campaign decried the closure during a rally outside the shop Friday morning.
Gami Ray, a barista at the shop, said a group of management employees convened an impromptu meeting behind the store counter around 2 p.m. Thursday. They informed employees of the store's immediate closure and offered a transfer to one of the chain's 17 other locations or a severance payment, Ray said.
Workers were ordered to close down immediately instead of waiting for its normal closing time and customers sitting in the shop were ushered out, Ray and other workers said.
Ray said workers had no knowledge the chain was planning to close store and they suspect it has to do with the union drive.
"Our store was the first store to show up completely to the meetings as well as one of the first stores to complete our (union) petition signings, and we've been the most vocal about it online," Ray said. "And even before the union (effort), we've been very vocal on the store about the issues that we deal with."
Our statement on the sudden and immediate closing of the Heine Brothers' Douglass Loop location ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/inDS7n1qDy
— HB Workers Union (@HBWorkersUnion) July 1, 2022
Heine Bros. cofounder and president Mike Mays said in the news release that the closure was about business.
"We've had a great run at the Douglass Loop and are now turning our attention to operating drive-thru coffee shops," he said. "Even before the pandemic drive-thrus were becoming a store feature that our customers demanded more and more – now they are something we must have to stay competitive."
Tyler Glick, a spokesman for Heine Bros., didn't directly comment on why the workers weren't aware of the plan and why the store closed abruptly.
"Heine Bros. is growing," he said. "This was the last of the non-drive-thrus outside of downtown."
The workers unionizing efforts began in April with the assistance of the Louisville-based NCFO affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, which has about 2 million members nationally. The drive applies to all Heine Bros. locations instead of the store-by-store effort underway at Starbucks locations.
Heine Bros. has about 230 employees in all, according to Emily Walker, communications specialist for the 32BJ branch of SEIU.
Heine Bros. hasn't recognized the union, and the workers have been focused on building support before deciding whether to move for vote overseen by the National Labor Relations Board on whether to establish a bargaining unit.
"This is a worker-led movement and our timeline is led by the decisions of the Heine Brothers' workers that make up the organizing committee. They will decide how to proceed with their union fight going forward," said Robert Smith, secretary-treasurer of NCFO 32BJ SEIU, in a prepared statement.
The push is part of a national wave of organizing efforts among baristas. As of last month, 85 of Starbucks' 9,000 company-owned stores had voted to unionize since December, according to the Associated Press. That includes the Starbucks on Factory Lane in east Louisville, which ratified its union in a vote in May.
Asked why they want to form a union at Heine Bros., former Douglass Loop worker Anthony Max said: "Because if we had respect, (the store) wouldn't be closed on short notice. ... I'm in the union because I want more respect."
