Workers at Redmond’s Homegrown sandwich shop strike over ‘unfair’ firing of union leader

REDMOND, Wash. — Union workers at a Homegrown sandwich shop in Redmond have been striking since Oct. 30 to protest the firing of their coworker.

Workers are demanding that the company rehire longtime union leader Sydney Lankford.

“It’s unfair that I was fired after speaking up as a union member. But, I’m so proud that all my coworkers at the Redmond store are standing together. I just want to get back to doing my job and helping make the store run,” said Lankford.

Workers at Homegrown recently won an NLRB election in 2022, and have been in contract negotiations with the company since the beginning of 2023.

Workers say that Lankford spoke up during a union delegation of management and was fired the following week.

The company said that they fired her because she was aggressive toward a supervisor and that she did not follow a new break policy.

However, the union believes that Homegrown started enforcing the break time policy without notifying employees and then refused to meet with the union to bargain over discipline and termination.

“It’s wild that they fired someone so central to the everyday operation of the store. Sydney needs to be reinstated immediately. She’s a natural lead and takes on so much responsibility for the store to run as well as it does. We are all standing together to get her back,” said striking Redmond Homegrown worker Kaden Mcallister.

Redmond Homegrown workers say that they will continue striking until Homegrown reinstates Sydney with back pay.

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