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Minneapolis News
Anika Besst

Baristas at Café Ceres in Minneapolis vote in favor of unionizing

The outside corner of the business facade
A Cafe Ceres location on the bottom floor of the Wakpada apartment building on the corner of Minnehaha Avenue and East 46th Street in Minneapolis, as seen on Monday. Cafe Ceres’ baristas voted Saturday to join a union.
Anika Besst | MPR News

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Baristas at Café Ceres in Minneapolis have voted in favor of unionizing.

Hospitality union Unite Here Local 17 said the workers voted 88 percent on Saturday in favor of joining the union.

About 30 baristas work at the four Café Ceres locations across Minneapolis. The cafes are part of Daniel del Prado's DDP Restaurant Group, which includes Colita in the Armatage neighborhood of Minneapolis, Sanjusan in Minneapolis’ North Loop and Cardamom in the Walker Art Center.

In June, the baristas at Cafe Ceres had called on DDP Restaurant Group to voluntarily recognize their union and negotiate a contract. The baristas say they deserve better pay and benefits.

“A lot of us are service industry workers. We are currently and have been for a long time, and we’ve been through a lot,” said Café Ceres barista Mariam Karkache. “One thing that’s been common among all of us is that our jobs aren’t really treated as real jobs, even though they’re kind of an integral part of our communities that we live in and just the economy.”

In the wake of Saturday’s vote, the baristas at Café Ceres are deciding what they want to bargain for. That could include scheduled wage increases or raises due to inflation. Karkache said they are also interested in more accessible healthcare benefits, and improved working conditions.

The union said Saturday’s vote came after a “persistent anti-union campaign by the employer.”

“They kind of just pretended it wasn’t a thing up until, like, maybe a month ago,” Karkache said. “They could have recognized the union right when we went public, but they decided not to, even though we had supermajority support.”

DDP Restaurant Group did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment.

Workers at Colita, another DDP restaurant, voted in a union election in July, with a final vote tally pending. The union said that workers there also have encountered efforts by the company to prevent unionization.