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Some Philly Dunkin’ workers want to unionize

A group of 46 employees who work at a manufacturing center for Northeast Donut Shops Management Corporation filed paperwork to join the United Food and Commercial Workers.

The Dunkin' logo is seen on a storefront in Boston. Workers at the manufacturing facility for a Dunkin' franchisee that owns 45 Philadelphia-area stores are trying to form a union.
The Dunkin' logo is seen on a storefront in Boston. Workers at the manufacturing facility for a Dunkin' franchisee that owns 45 Philadelphia-area stores are trying to form a union.Read moreMichael Dwyer / AP

Bakers, drivers, cleaners, and other non-management employees at a Dunkin’ manufacturing facility in Frankford are trying to form a union.

The 46 workers filed paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board Wednesday, seeking to join United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 152.

The proposed bargaining unit includes “all full-time and part-time drivers, cleaners, and production workers, bakers, finishers, bench, fryer and coffee” employed by Northeast Donut Shops Management at 5201 Darrah St. in Philadelphia.

Northeast Donut Shops is a franchisee of Dunkin’ that owns 45 stores in Philadelphia and nearby suburbs with more than 800 employees, according to the company’s website.

The franchisee’s CEO, Sonny Ho, started working at the Erie-Torresdale Dunkin’ as a teenager and was managing four locations within a few years. He became a partner in Northeast Donut Shops in 1995 and CEO five years later.

“I made the doughnuts. I made the muffins,” Ho told The Inquirer in 2020. “I made a lot of sacrifices.”

Northeast Donut Shops and Ho did not respond to requests for comment on the worker’s NLRB petition.

Lawyer David Watkins, who represents the union, declined to comment on the workers’ organizing efforts.