Knead Pizza announced it was permanently closing down its two locations.
Gabriela Martinez
Updated: 2022-08-29 12:42:02
Harrisburg pizza shop employees tried to unionize. Then the shop closed.
The workers are now filing unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.
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Gabriela Martínez/WITF
Gabriela Martinez
Knead Pizza announced it was permanently closing down its two locations.
Former employees of a now-shuttered restaurant in Harrisburg are filing unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Knead Pizza.
Knead Pizza said last week it was closing its slice shop in Midtown Harrisburg, as well as its original location inside Broad Street Market.
The decision came after a group of workers requested that the company recognize their union. Nine out of 11 employees had signed a petition to join Unite Here Local 274 – a Philadelphia-based hotel and food service workers union.
Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) Secretary Jennifer Berrier joined the owners of Knead Pizza and Elementary Coffee at Harrisburg’s Broad Street Market to highlight Governor Wolf’s minimum wage proposal and share the real-life impacts a higher minimum wage would have on thousands of workers and their families.
The workers allege Knead Pizza closed unlawfully after the employees presented their union petition. They also accuse the restaurant of retaliating against union activities by denying employees half-time pay for COVID-19-related store closures.
The National Labor Relations Act prohibits an employer from discriminating or retaliating against an employee based on their union activities. The act also says it does not limit an employer’s right to “discharge, transfer, or layoff an employee for genuine economic reasons.”
A spokesperson for the National Labor Review Board said its regional office is investigating. If they find merit to the charges, the office will issue a complaint, which results in an administrative law judge hearing unless the parties settle.
Knead Pizza’s co-owner Jennie O’Neill declined to comment.
After the workers presented their union petition last Friday, the owners said on Instagram the shop would be shuttered over the weekend until Wednesday because of short-staffing and a COVID-19 case.
The shop said it was closing permanently in another Instagram post on Tuesday. The owners wrote they respect the worker’s rights to unionize, but their decision to close comes during “extremely difficult operational times.”
Jessie Pierce, who led the effort to join a union, said most employees found out from an Instagram post on Tuesday.
“They didn’t tell us through our official shift scheduling app. They didn’t give us any phone calls. We received no emails,” Pierce said. “I feel that it was a deeply disrespectful way to end things.”
Knead Pizza employees began plans to unionize last December. The idea appealed to some, like Otis Pierce, Jessie’s sibling and former shift leader who worked at the restaurant for two years.
“When I started out, it really felt like a great place to work. I love coming to work. I love my coworkers,” Otis Pierce said. “But things sort of started to change as we came out of the pandemic, to be a lot less friendly to workers. Most recently, we all received a really major hours cut.”
Jessie Pierce says she viewed unionization as the next “logical step” for the workers at Knead.
The company paid employees $15 an hour – above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
Courtesy of Commonwealth Media Services
Jessie Pierce, Knead Team Member, joined the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry at Harrisburg’s Broad Street Market to highlight Governor Wolf’s minimum wage proposal and share the real-life impacts a higher minimum wage would have on thousands of workers and their families.
“The reason that I initially came to Knead in the first place is because I knew I would make a living wage,” Otis Pierce said.
In a May news conference for Gov. Tom Wolf’s minimum wage proposal, Knead Pizza was featured as an example of a successful business that pays a livable wage.
“Prices are going up all the time. Our food prices are going up,” O’Neill said. “Our cost of labor should go up as well. That changes what our bottom line looks like. It’s a given cost.”
Jessie Pierce said the union planned to start with non-economic demands, such as procedures for addressing a grievance and grounds for firing, as well as an employee handbook to delineate a dress code and other policies. They were also calling for consistent hours throughout the week.
“There were people who were scheduled for like two-and-a-half hour shifts, which is not long enough to be worth it. There were people who were scheduled for 10 hour shifts, which is inhumanely long,“ Jesse Pierce said. “None of this was run by us ahead of time.”
Courtesy of Commonwealth Media Services
Jennie O’Neill, owner of Knead Pizza, joined the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry at Harrisburg’s Broad Street Market to highlight Governor Wolf’s minimum wage proposal and share the real-life impacts a higher minimum wage would have on thousands of workers and their families.
Former Knead employee Anne-Marie Stewart said she had hoped that becoming the only unionized pizza restaurant in the state capital would have attracted union-friendly business, making it a “win-win situation.”
“But the owners would not sit down with us,” Stewart said.
Kelsey White, another Harrisburg employee in the food service industry, started a fundraiser for Knead Pizza employees who lost their jobs. It has raised $8,862 as of Thursday.
Gabriela Martínez is part of the “Report for America” program — a national service effort that places journalists in newsrooms across the country to report on under-covered topics and communities.
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