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Good Karma employees voted to get rid of their union

After one year and two store closures, remaining workers at the coffee shop filed a union decertification petition in August.

The Good Karma near Ninth and Pine Streets in Washington Square West closed indefinitely in January. It was the third Good Karma Cafe location to close since staff unionized in March 2022. Remaining employees voted out the union on Sept. 7.
The Good Karma near Ninth and Pine Streets in Washington Square West closed indefinitely in January. It was the third Good Karma Cafe location to close since staff unionized in March 2022. Remaining employees voted out the union on Sept. 7.Read moreSteven M. Falk / Staff Photographer

Employees at the two remaining locations of Philadelphia coffee shop Good Karma have voted to get rid of Workers United Philadelphia Joint Board as their union.

The vote, which was overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, took place on Sept. 7, less than a year and a half after the employees voted to unionize. The union and Good Karma management had not yet agreed to a first contract.

Good Karma previously had four locations in the city. Three of them closed in the months after the union vote, one of which recently reopened.

At the two locations currently operating, 18 employees were eligible to vote. Four voted for the union, six against, and eight chose not to vote.

In the original union election, in March 2022, 20 employees voted for the union, three against, and six chose not to vote.

The employee who started the decertification petition, Marco Camponeschi, is represented by the National Right to Work Foundation (NRWF). The same organization is working to decertify Workers United at several Starbucks locations, an effort that faces legal obstacles because of allegations of anti-union activity by Starbucks.

“We are happy that Mr. Camponeschi and his coworkers were able to exercise their right to vote on whether Workers United union officials deserved to stay in power at their workplace,” foundation president Mark Mix said in a statement Monday. “We hope the election result will now be promptly certified and that union officials do not seek to undermine the choice that Good Karma employees have made.”

Since last year, the union had been in negotiations on a first contract, but progress was sluggish at best, Local 80 organizer Eli Zastempowski said in an interview ahead of the vote.

Zastempowski said the three shuttered stores were all locations where bargaining committee members worked. Employees were not transferred to remaining locations and learned they would have to reapply for their jobs if their stores reopened, according to the union.

Zastempowski did not respond to a request for comment on the election results Monday.

Good Karma owner Shawn Nesbit also did not respond to a request for comment on the election results.

“Good Karma Cafe will continue to commit to our values of providing a happy, supportive environment for our employees and customers,” Nesbit said last week, ahead of the vote. “We have maintained from the start we will respect our staff’s decision on how to create that environment.”

Workers seek union decertification much less frequently than they file for union representation. Last year, representation elections overseen by the NLRB outnumbered decertification elections by nearly 10-1.