Good Karma Cafe temporarily shutters another location months after workers unionized

Three months after its employees voted to unionize, Good Karma Cafe has temporarily shuttered a second location.

Company president Shawn Nesbit confirmed the location at 22nd and Pine Streets closed Friday until further notice. The Good Karma at 23rd and Walnut closed earlier this spring due to staffing shortages. Two other locations, at Ninth and Pine and at the Wilma Theater on South Broad Street, remain open.

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“We have made the very difficult decision to temporarily close our Fitler Square location. We are taking this time to address some building and equipment repairs that require immediate attention,” Nesbit said in a statement. “We look forward to providing an improved Good Karma experience that benefits our employees, customers, and community. We also look forward to meeting with the Union to establish an agreement that works for both parties.”

The Good Karma workers’ union, United Karma, said in a statement that Nesbit had been repeatedly informed of structural issues at the Pine Street shop. “[Given] the two pressing concerns leading to this closure — a leak in the ceiling that caused it to sink in, and a lack of proper air conditioning — are issues that Shawn has been told about repeatedly for months, for the former, or years, for the latter, it’s difficult not to see this as a union matter.”

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According to the statement and previous interviews with Good Karma workers, timely repairs are a key item in the union’s agenda for contract bargaining.

The union also said that workers “are extremely disappointed and frustrated” that employees at the 22nd and Pine location would be laid off instead of transferred to either of the two operating locations — or the 23rd and Walnut location, which remains closed. The union also expressed frustration that workers would have to reapply for their jobs when the shuttered locations reopen.

“We’ve been hearing ever since the closure of the first store, on 23rd and Walnut, that Shawn wants to get it staffed and back up and running as soon as possible,” the statement read. “Instead of giving [workers] these options, they were told that, if they want to continue working at Good Karma, they have to re-apply.”

“This is a matter of not only better working conditions but of securing our livelihoods,” the statement concluded.

Good Karma workers voted to unionize at the end of March, 20-3. United Karma is affiliated with Philly-based Workers United, which has also helped organize Starbucks workers across the country. Employees at five Philadelphia Starbucks have voted to unionize since May.

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Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct a photo caption that incorrectly attributed a statement to company president Shawn Nesbit.