AUSTIN, Texas — A former employee at a popular Palm Springs-inspired cocktail bar in East Austin claims he was fired in retaliation for his attempts to unionize and ask for better wages.
Jacob Estes, who had worked at Kitty Cohen's since last year, reached out to KVUE on Tuesday, Aug. 20, saying that he and other employees planned to hand in a demand letter to the owner the following day. He said the bar has nine employees – five support staff and four bartenders, with the bartenders also taking one shift per week as managers – and four employees had signed the letter as of that evening.
“We get paid every two weeks and by the end of it, none of us have money to eat,” Estes later told KVUE in an in-person interview.
He said he was in desperate need of work last year after he was fired from his previous job. He began working at the door and as a bar back at Kitty Cohen’s, saying he was aware employees at the bar were being paid $12 to $15 an hour.
But he said working there has still been financially challenging.
“I have three jobs right now,” Estes said. “My coworker – this week, he worked 88 hours and he only got paid $1,100.”
Estes said he's tried to look for other jobs, but Kitty Cohen's offers insurance that he needs.
He said for the past few months, on several occasions, he has asked the bar's owner, Jeremy Murray, for a raise.
“He said, ‘No, the business isn't profitable so we can't give you a raise.’ So, that's when I started to organize because I knew we all needed a raise and he wasn't gonna do anything,” Estes said.
He and four other employees turned in a list of demands to Murray on Wednesday, Aug. 21, asking for fairer wages. The employees asked for Kitty Cohen's to match the city of Austin's minimum wage at $20.80 an hour, give retroactive raises and allocate 1% of quarterly profits to employees using a point system based on seniority, position and hours worked, to be paid out quarterly.
Ana Gonzalez, the director of Organizing & Advocacy at the Texas AFL-CIO, said it's a worker's right to ask for things like that.
“You absolutely have the right to organize, and there's also protections around retaliation when you're going through that process,” she said.
Gonzalez said there has been a rise in workers organizing in Austin because collective power can make a difference in wages and safety conditions. She said a worker can register their independent organizing efforts with the National Labor Relations Board, or they can work with an existing union that has an existing structure.
The same day that KVUE interviewed Estes, he told us he received an email from Murray, saying his employment would be terminated effective immediately.
Since then, Estes has made a Change.org petition with 150 signatures, asking for a reversal of the termination. He has also created a GoFundMe.
“We're just trying to survive,” Estes told KVUE. “So, I think if we can solve this problem on a micro level, that's the best thing I could do for my community.”
KVUE reached out to Murray, who said he gave the demand letter to his lawyer to look over. Murray has not responded to our request to confirm if Estes has been fired.