How to Union Bust

By Joe Rosenthal
July 24, 2024, updated July 24, 2025

“‘Vote No.’”

I reported on the union-busting efforts of Twin Cities restaurateur Ann Kim. Soon after, the Star Tribune, one of the largest newspapers in the United States, began a weeks-long campaign of legal threats and intimidation in an effort to suppress my work critiquing and reporting on Ann Kim’s union busting. The Star Tribune eventually filed a bad-faith copyright claim to have my reporting removed from Instagram when I didn’t acquiesce to their demands.

In late May, nearly 60 workers at Kim’s in Minneapolis declared their intent to unionize. The Star Tribune and Eater Twin Cities both reported that one front-of-house employee cited that their pay can be erratic to the point that an employee could work 35 hours one week and just 10 hours in another.

On the heels of the unionization announcement, Ann Kim hired Blois Olson as the public relations representative for Kim’s (Blois is pronounced with an oy sound, like “‘oy vey’”, and it ends with an unvoiced s). Olson previously represented Spyhouse Coffee Roasters during the staff’s failed unionization effort in late 2020. Employees who attempted to unionize at the time described Spyhouse’s behavior as “union busting.” Staff wrote that Spyhouse attempted to “gaslight” them, and they discussed Spyhouse holding captive audience meetings, meetings designed to force workers to listen to an employer's views on topics like unions. The meetings are a means of perpetuating union-busting rhetoric to staff. Captive audience meetings have since been made illegal in seven states, including Minnesota.

In lieu of captive audience meetings, Ann Kim used an internal system for messaging employees and managing time sheets to send her staff a series of increasingly aggressive union-busting messages. On June 25, I broke news of the union-busting campaign, and I published a collection of the messages to my Instagram with a lead-in slide of art critiquing the restaurateur. The art was a parody ad parodying both MasterClass ads and the lionization of Ann Kim in publications like the Star Tribune and New York Times. My art presented an image of Ann Kim, a modified version of a photo from the Star Tribune, and it featured a Union Busters logo and the following text: “‘The truth about unions from Ann Kim and Vestalia Hospitality: You Matter. Your Voice Matters. But only if you vote no.’” Vestalia Hospitality is Ann Kim’s restaurant group, and it includes Kim’s, Hello Pizza, Pizzeria Lola and Young Joni.

My Union Busters art included actual quotes from Ann Kim’s June 13 message to her staff: “‘You matter. Your voice matters.’” And in the very next sentence of the same paragraph, she told her staff, “‘vote no.’” That was a common refrain for Ann Kim across her many union-busting messages to her staff. You can see the messages in the image set above, and that image set encompass my June 25 Instagram post, with the addition of two messages Ann Kim sent to her staff on June 11 and June 12. Those two messages were previously published to Instagram separately from the aforementioned post.

Jay Boller of Racket MN characterized Ann Kim’s messages to her staff as “‘explicitly, even frantically, anti-union.’” Her union busting messages encompassed fearmongering about unions, implicit threats of worsening working conditions should unionization pass, and she claimed staff that supported the union as sowing “‘vitriol or divisiveness,’” “‘chaos and division.’” Ann Kim established union supporters as an aberration: they’re bad actors that don’t represent the staff of the restaurant.

Throughout Ann Kim’s messages to her staff, she established a narrative that inequity at her restaurant is an issue that can be resolved if staff “‘just ask us’” what they need, and this is a framing that serves to convince employees that their grievances are insignificant, and union supporters have blown their concerns out of proportion.

The Star Tribune Intercedes

Hours after I published my reporting on Ann Kim’s union busting, I received an email from the Star Tribune's deputy managing editor of news operations, Colleen Stoxen, telling me to remove my work critiquing Ann Kim. The deputy managing editor claimed that my usage of the paper’s photograph was “‘unauthorized’” and that I must remove my work by the end of the day to avoid a demand letter for a licensing fee. Upon further interaction, it became explicitly clear that the intent was for my work to be removed.

I’m not a stranger to the subjects of my reporting attempting to weaponize copyright law to have my work removed: it’s an existential threat to what I do if I bow to bad-faith copyright claims. For the past five years, I’ve been reporting on inequity issues in the food world and creating art to raise awareness of my reporting. You can see my work throughout this website, and on my Instagram.

I’m aware of my rights, and I asserted to Colleen Stoxen that my work is fair use: it’s a noncommercial critique of Ann Kim; the work is transformative, and it does not compete with the Star Tribune’s ability to market their original unadulterated photograph of Ann Kim. The emails I received regarding the Star Tribune’s effort to get my work removed, and my responses, including hand-written annotations can be seen below, and these images were originally published in a July 8 Instagram post.

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A screenshot of an email sent by The Star Tribune’s deputy managing editor of news operations, Colleen Stoxen, demanding that I remove my UNION BUSTERS art. My annotated responses have been added to the screenshot. These annotated emails were originally published to Instagram at @joe_rosenthal on July 8th.

Joe Rosenthal

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Two days after my email exchange with the Star Tribune’s deputy managing editor, I received an email response from James T. Nikolai of DeWitt LLP, the outside counsel representing the Star Tribune. Nikolai’s response and his case citations therein were disconnected from the reality of my work. The email was clearly an effort to intimidate me into removing my work. After receiving the email, I spoke to lawyers, including multiple intellectual property lawyers: all reaffirmed that my work is firmly in the realm of fair use, and that the Star Tribune is baselessly attempting to bully me into removing it.

I’ve listed a selection of Nikolai’s bad-faith claims below:

• “…the fair use defense is not available to you.”
• “…your use of the photo did not add new purpose or meaning, and you made only minimal alteration if any, the use was not transformative.”
• “…your use of the photo was commercial in nature. It is highly likely that you are monetizing your Instagram account either directly through Instagram or to advertise your other ventures from which you profit both monetarily and in other ways.”
• “…you used virtually the entire photo.”
• “the effect of your use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work also weighs against a finding of fair use.”

These claims ultimately led to Nikolai’s assertion that the Star Tribune’s interest is in the removal of my entire Union Busters post, including the union busting messages reported therein: “we renew Star Tribune’s demand that you immediately take down the post.”

Below you can see Nikolai’s email in its entirety with my annotated responses to his claims.

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A screenshot of an email sent by Star Tribune's outside counsel, James T. Nikolai. My annotated responses have been added to the screenshot. These annotated emails were originally published to Instagram at @joe_rosenthal on July 8.

Joe Rosenthal

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My Union Busters art is designed to critique Ann Kim’s union busting campaign and the lionization of Ann Kim in media like the Star Tribune: this is a distinctly different purpose and meaning from that of an unadulterated photograph of Ann Kim designed to accompany an uncritical puff piece: the photo was from an October 2022 Star Tribune article titled, “‘The world is getting to know Ann Kim. And they're crying, too.’”

The “‘And They're Crying, Too’” photograph is “‘highly likely’” to be from the same shoot as the header photograph of another Star Tribune puff piece titled, “‘The toughest audience for James Beard award-winning chef Ann Kim? Her parents,’” published in March 2020. Both photos feature Ann Kim wearing a leopard-print blouse at the construction site of Ann Kim’s previous restaurant Sooki & Mimi—that restaurant concept opened in early 2021, and it eventually turned into Kim’s.

Against all odds, there did seem to be a market for a four-year-old photo of Ann Kim at a construction site for her now long-constructed restaurant: on June 28 Robb Report licensed the Star Tribune’s photograph in an article about the Kim’s staff union. You can find the image underneath a paragraph describing my work, and the article itself linked to my Union Busters Instagram post. Not only is it demonstrable that my work has not had a deleterious effect on the Star Tribune’s ability to license their photograph, it’s associated with an increase in licensing for the Star Tribune.

My Union Buster’s parody art does not compete with the Star Tribune’s unadulterated photo: it’s parody art mostly full of text about Ann Kim’s union busting, and it has no relevance outside of discussions of my work in reporting on Ann Kim’s union busting—with exception, of course, to discussions of the Star Tribune’s effort to suppress my work, thanks to the work of the Star Tribune’s deputy managing editor of news operations.

James T. Nikolai, the Star Tribune’s outside counsel, seemed to be attempting to gaslight me throughout his email response, from claiming it was “‘highly likely’” that my Instagram is monetized, definitively stating that my Union Busters post was “‘commercial in nature,’” to claiming that I “‘made only minimal alteration if any’” to the “‘And They're Crying, Too’” photograph in making my union busters image. “‘If any,’” implies that there’s a possibility that I outright just republished the Star Tribune’s photograph without any modification for my Union Busters post. I’ve decided to make a helpful tool that you can see below to demonstrate that my Union Busters art and the Star Tribune’s photograph are different images.

The creation of my Union Busters art was a substantive undertaking: I created the Union Busters logo; I positioned Ann Kim in the frame and extending the background beyond the photograph’s original bounds; I applied non-uniform gradients to Ann Kim and the background; I spent significant time writing the text of the art, selecting fonts and blending the text, in addition to other actions that amounted to cohesive and polished art.

I’ve said that I’ve never made money from my Instagram account, and that was true until today, July 24: I received a surprise windfall from Instagram’s creator fund for content views for during the two-month period of May and June, totalling $9.72. I can say, though, that I’ve never kept any money made from my Instagram account, and I've donated $10 (plus fees) to Alzheimer’s Association, a go-to charity of mine. I made the donation in honor of the Star Tribune’s deputy managing editor of news operations, Colleen Stoxen. I’ve disabled this creator fund functionality so the Star Tribune can rest assured that no further donations will be made to Alzheimer’s Association with the pittance I could receive from Instagram.

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An email that was sent to Colleen Stoxen, deputy managing editor of news operations for the Star Tribune to notify her of an Alzheimer’s Association donation in her honor. This donation was initially erroneously sent out “in memory of” rather than “in honor of,” and Alzheimer’s Association issued this corrected email.

Alzheimer’s Association

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I’m a mathematician: my PhD was focused on building predictive models related to Alzheimer’s disease, and my job is focused on leading an effort to build software to improve cancer diagnostics. That’s my career. My Union Busters post is not, as Nikolai claimed, something that serves to "advertise your other ventures from which you profit both monetarily and in other ways." It’s plainly obvious that my internet presence is not substantively monetized: there’s no sponsored content on my account, and there’s no ads on this website or affiliate links. You may pause at my three-year-old joke announcement of a monetization plan, but there’s been no takers since.

Nikolai’s response to me on behalf of the Star Tribune featured many false assertions and supporting case law citations. But his arguments relied on leaps in logic to jump to the conclusions he wanted, and he failed to make his arguments relevant to me and my work. At one point in his email, Nikolai mentioned Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music Inc. with regard to the quote within the following quote: “‘cognizable market harm exists when a commercial use is not transformative but instead ‘amounts to mere duplication of the entirety of an original.’’”

In an Instagram comment made in response to my post about the Star Tribune’s weaponization of copyright law, @madcapzest noted that “‘Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. alone ruled in favor of protecting commercial parody as fair use; why he thought bringing it to your attention was at all in his client’s interest is beyond me.’” Such citations, the preponderance of false claims in Nikolai’s email, and his explicit demand that “we renew Star Tribune’s demand that you immediately take down the post” underscore the bad-faith nature of both his response and the Star Tribune’s arguments against my work.

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A screenshot of an email sent by The Star Tribune’s deputy managing editor of news operations, Colleen Stoxen asking when I will comply with her demands. My annotated responses have been added to the screenshot. These annotated emails were originally published to Instagram at @joe_rosenthal on July 8.

Joe Rosenthal

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Five days after I last heard from the Star Tribune’s outside counsel, he Star Tribune’s deputy managing editor of news operations, Colleen Stoxen, replied to his email, but she had removed him as a recipient. The email seemed to shift in tone: Stoxen seemed to want to backpedal from her outside counsel’s claim that “we renew Star Tribune’s demand that you immediately take down the post”—that’s the stuff of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. The aggressive deadlines of her last email and that of the outside counsel were gone, just a “‘please let us known when you will comply.’”

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Instagram post removal notices as a result of a DMCA claim by Star Tribune's outside counsel, James T. Nikolai.

Instagram

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As it seemed to become clear to the Star Tribune that I would stand my ground with regard to my work being fair use, the Star Tribune moved to weaponize the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to have my Union Buster post removed, and their outside counsel, James T. Nikolai, filed a claim with Meta.

My post reporting on Ann Kim’s union busting was removed, pending a counter-DMCA claim, or the Star Tribune retracting their bad-faith claim, and the former could take weeks given an ongoing bug with Meta’s system. The post was directly linked in articles from many publications: Robb Report, Bring Me The News, Racket MN, and even the Star Tribune linked to my reporting in my Union Busters post after I requested that the author link to my reporting— I felt like the article title, “‘Ann Kim steps up opposition to union at Uptown restaurant’” if not the article as a whole were generous to Ann Kim without a link to her union-busting messages. The Star Tribune suppressed my work and the reporting within, and they’ve broken the direct referencing of leaked union-busting messages sent by Ann Kim.

Setting the Stage for Failure

On June 27, the Kim’s staff successfully voted to unionize, with 65% of eligible staff voting “‘yes.’” Ann Kim owns the restaurant group Vestalia Hospitality with her husband and chief financial officer Conrad Leifur, and together along with childhood friend and chief operating officer Becky Lemon, they are the ultimate leadership of the restaurant group’s restaurants, Kim’s, Hello Pizza, Young Joni, and Pizzeria Lola.

Vestalia recently announced the end of lunch service and the close of Bronto Bar in an email to staff, and they claimed “‘a decline in business,’” as the justification for the changes. I have confirmed that the termination of both lunch service and Bronto Bar service was not discussed with the Kim’s union prior to the emailed announcement. I originally reported the news of the announcement on July 18, through my Instagram story.

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A July 17 email sent to Kim’s staff announcing the end of lunch service and the close of the Bronto Bar on August 1. Prior to those closures, Kim’s was open for lunch on Saturday and Sunday, and the Bronto Bar was open Thursday through Saturday from 5pm until Kim’s closes.

Vestalia Hospitality

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Multiple sources within Kim’s characterized the Bronto Bar as generally busy on Friday and Saturday nights, but they described lunch service as much slower. The Bronto Bar was a space that staff enjoyed and spent time at together after shifts. The closure serves to hurt staff, and it could be justification for future staff terminations.

Unite Here Local 17 told me, “‘We are disappointed in Kim’s unilateral decision to reduce service and have demanded the company bargain with its workers about any such change.’” The restaurant group’s leadership is required to engage in good-faith bargaining before implementing these changes. Ann Kim’s entire restaurant group made their Instagram profiles private after the Kim’s staff announced their intent to unionize, and just after the unionization vote, Ann Kim blocked me and many Kim’s employees who supported the union.

The day after I broke the news on the end of lunch and Bronto Bar services at Kim’s, I received an aggressively anti-union message on Instagram from a freshly-made anonymous account—the Instagram app itself informs you if an account that sends you a message is newly created.

The sender asked pointed questions: “‘Do you have any thoughts on the difference in legal standards that unions and employers are held to as far as how and what they can communicate to employees?’”, and they called into question my reporting: “‘ you reported that 60 employees at Kim’s originally petitioned to unionize but that was false.’” As I did in this article, I used the language “‘nearly 60,’” in my initial reporting, and that’s similar to the language in articles about the Kim’s union from the Star Tribune, Robb Report, et al.

The anonymous messenger also asked, “‘how does the union plan to ensure it represents the 35% who voted no?,’” as if the staff’s bargaining won’t benefit those who voted against unionization. They ended with, “‘how can someone be accused of union busting when there wasn’t a formal union to recognize?’”

Describing the message as just “‘anti-union’” is generous: it was outright supportive of Ann Kim’s union busting—the sender called her “‘Ann.’” The message felt like the work of Kim’s public relations representative, Blois Olson, and I responded accordingly: “‘if you want to engage with me, have the decency to message me on your actual instagram account, Blois, not this newly made fake account.’”

18 minutes later, I received a message, unprompted, from Blois Olson: “‘Joe- I have a strong history of calling out and never using fake accounts or being anonymous. Going forward if you want to confirm something about me or my business. Feel free to ask rather than assume, project or imply. Truth Matters. - Blois.’” I hadn’t mentioned the interaction to anyone or posted about it before Blois Olson took it upon himself to message me, defending himself against an accusation he ought to not have known about.

You can see all of my interactions with Blois Olson up until that point (and also my interaction with the anonymous anti-union messenger who Blois insists is definitely someone else—the truth matters) in the image set below. Recall that he previously represented Spyhouse Coffee Roasters amidst allegations of union busting from their staff at the time. The union-busting playbook works: Spyhouse staff’s unionization effort failed, and that playbook is precisely why Blois Olson was hired, not his social media savvy or conversational prowess.

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A September 13 2023 Instagram story post by Ann Kim in which she self-aggrandizingly discussed not using public relations firms. She concluded with, FUCK FEAR. Things change.

Instagram

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I asked Blois Olson for comment about Vestalia Hospitality not engaging in good-faith bargaining over the end of lunch and Bronto Bar services at Kim’s: he explicitly read my message to him; he waited until after my stated deadline to respond, and then he claimed to me that his “‘engagement’” with Kim’s “‘ended.’”

Restaurateurs are able to perpetuate harm without consequence because they are enabled by media organizations who have done little but lionize them in pursuit of access over accountability. The union-busting playbook depends on that prioritization.

The Star Tribune, through the arguments of their outside counsel, have made it unequivocally clear that there’s no good-faith justification for their campaign to remove my reporting on Ann Kim’s union busting. Whether Ann Kim or Blois Olson directly solicited the Star Tribune’s deputy managing editor of news operations to suppress my work, or the Star Tribune is proactively protecting future access to Ann Kim and Blois Olson’s many other clients, the Star Tribune is prioritizing access over accountability. They are engaging in the logical equivalent to running interference for Ann Kim. They are enabling Ann Kim’s union busting efforts. The behavior of the Star Tribune in this matter is nothing short of patently unethical and they have failed in their obligations as reporters.

Critiques of harmful figures cannot depend on permission from a media organization that puffed them up beyond recognition. My work is fair use, and it remains removed from Instagram due to a copyright claim by the Star Tribune’s outside counsel: I call on the Star Tribune to remedy this situation and immediately retract their copyright claim against my work and restore my original reporting. They are on the wrong side of this story, and it is imperative that their role here be made well known.

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A July 20 Instagram post by Ann Kim, look up and do the right thing. A former employee of Ann Kim’s Pizzeria Lola told me that during the first quarter of the pandemic, Ann Kim “yelled” that “you all are making too much money in tips, we have to figure this out.” I was told that shortly thereafter, a 21% surcharge model was implemented in the restaurant. Many of Ann Kim’s staff have told me that they’re making significant less with service fees. Multiple sources have confirmed that at a pre-pandemic staff party, Ann Kim thanked her staff for making her a millionaire. She’s engaged in union busting attempts—she’s doing the right thing.

Instagram

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Burying the Union

Since this article’s original publication, the Star Tribune’s leadership has seen it, and they have not rescinded their copyright claim against my work. I am waiting for Instagram to process my counter-claim notice, which I had to mail to them as a letter due to their broken online counter-claim form. Once Instagram processes my notice, Star Tribune will have 14 business days to file a federal lawsuit or my post will be restored.

In the intervening weeks, the Star Tribune changed their name, and they breathlessly celebrated Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King visiting Ann Kim’s pizzeria, Young Joni on August 18. The Star Tribune’s @stribgoingout account posted two pictures of Ann Kim with the celebrities, and thanked her for the photo. They made no mention of Ann Kim’s union busting.

I wrote the following comment in respond to the Star Tribune:

Ann Kim engaged in union busting. I broke news of union-busting messages she sent to her staff and published them. Star Tribune weaponized copyright law to have my reporting on this removed from social media. Now Star Tribune is making an uncritical puff post nonsense about Ann Kim less than two months later? This is disgusting. This is access over accountability at its worst. Rescind your copyright claim against my work.

My comment received seven likes before the Star Tribune hid it, and they restricted my account so that all future comments I make in response to posts by @stribgoingout will be hidden.

On August 4, Kim’s general manager Alex Ward announced to staff that she was resigning and that August 30 would be her last day. On August 15, Kim’s chef de cuisine Kyual Cribben announced that he was resigning, effective September 14. In a message to staff through 7shifts, Cribben wrote that he would “‘continue to stand by and support Ann and Conrad now and in the future.’” A month prior to Kribben’s resignation announcement, Young Joni’s executive chef Matt Leverty was named as the executive chef of Kim’s, ahead of Kribben who was previously leading the kitchen.

On August 22, Kim’s announced that they would close, and their final day of service would be on August 30. The announcement cited “‘ongoing financial losses’” as the justification for the closure. That leaves only eight days of notice for the unionized staff who will lose their jobs. The Star Tribune published an article with the headline: “‘Award-winning chef Ann Kim to closes Kim’s in Minneapolis’”.

As you would expect from the title, the Star Tribune article mentioned Ann Kim’s James Beard Best Chef: Midwest award and that the restaurant was vandalized in early June, but there was no mention of Ann Kim’s concerted union-busting efforts. On Threads I wrote that such an omission would be “‘journalistic malpractice.’”

Both Eater Twin Cities and Bring Me The News appropriately contextualized the Kim’s closure.

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A screenshot of an August 22 Instagram post announcing the closure of Kim’s.

Instagram

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A business closing just after a union forms is a classic union-busting tactic, and after Ann Kim’s campaign of union-busting messages to staff and the closure of Kim’s Bronto Bar service—staff described the bar to me as being busy on the weekends and a place where staff could hang out together after their shifts—it’s hard to view this closure as anything but the final stretch of the union busting playbook: fire the union members, and shut it all down.

The Kim’s closure announcement was made on the first day of the Minnesota State Fair, the biggest event in not only the Twin Cities but the entirety of Minnesota, and it’s the largest state fair in the country by average daily attendance. Most major local food writers are exclusively focused on talking about the fair on social media for its duration.

Whether or not Kim’s closure announcement timing was an intentional move on Ann Kim’s part to bury that news, the Kim’s closure was and will continue to be eclipsed by fair discussion for the fair’s duration—Kim’s will be closed before the Minnesota State Fair is over.

Multiple employees confirmed that on August 14, eight days before the Kim’s closing announcement, Kim’s interviewed a general manager candidate to replace its GM Alex Ward. And then on August 22, Kim’s suddenly decided that the restaurant could no longer continue: they gave their unionized staff eight days of notice before the restaurant would shut down on Ward’s last day, August 30.

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A screenshot taken on August 5 of Vestalia Hospitality’s job listings for Kim’s.

vestalia.applytojob.com

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The timing surrounding Kim’s hours reduction and closing in the context of the restaurant’s recent hiring efforts is either a result of incompetence, a catastrophic failure to plan ahead, and a series of incredible coincidences in timing, or it’s part of a concerted effort to fire the unionized staff and bust the union. If the latter is true, the job listings and GM interview were part of a sham search.

Ann Kim has not taken pains to hide her intent throughout this ordeal: after her staff announced their intent to unionize, she hired Blois Olson, a public-relations representative with a background in union busting. Ann Kim then sent a barrage of union-busting messages to her staff to coerce them into voting against unionization.

When Kim’s staff voted to unionize despite her efforts, Ann Kim closed the lunch and popular Bronto Bar services without good-faith bargaining with the Kim’s union. Ann Kim announced the closing of Kim’s on the opening day of the Minnesota State Fair, and the closing date is only eight days later. She is not engaging with her union in good faith, and her actions do not justify any benefit of the doubt.

After the Kim’s closing announcement, “‘what happens next in the union-busting playbook?’” The restaurant is closing, and the union will be busted on August 30. Ann Kim owns the Kim’s building—you might see Ann Kim reopen in that location, maybe a new concept, without rehiring the laid-off union workers, a staff of non-union employees. I can tell you what won’t happen next in the union-busting playbook: accountability.

Closing Kim’s just after the staff’s unionization, with eight days of notice, is not only a cruel manner to bust a union, it serves as a warning to the staff across her restaurants, Pizzeria Lola, Hello Pizza, Young Joni, and across the entire Twin Cities. Ghoulish restaurateurs in town will weaponize this closure to preemptively fearmonger about unionization, to falsely claim that Kim’s closed because of the union. It did not.

If a restaurant claims financial losses from unionization are the cause of its closure, it betrays the fact that the restaurant’s model wasn’t sustainable without exploiting workers. And that’s the story implicit in nearly all claims of an earnest closure immediately after a staff unionizes.

But Kim’s has no such earnest closure story: Bring Me The News reported that there was no contract negotiated between Kim’s and the union and that “‘it's unlikely that organizing efforts placed any immediate financial burden on the restaurant.’” Do you believe that Ann Kim would have taken the same actions this summer, cutting hours and service, and then closing the restaurant shortly thereafter, if the staff hadn’t unionized?

Restaurant owners shouldn’t look at the Kim’s situation fearful that a union could form in their own businesses: they should be fearful of treating their employees so poorly that they feel collective bargaining is their only hope for an equitable wage and fair treatment. If you view a restaurant’s staff unionizing as a failure, and you should, it’s a failure of the restaurant’s ownership, not its staff.

Union busters are successful because of their enablers. If Ann Kim can so flagrantly harm her employees, and Twin Cities restaurateurs don’t skip a beat in their public support of her; influencers still mindlessly promote her; and the Star Tribune continues to uncritically lionize her; why should she pause? What does Ann Kim lose in treating her staff so poorly when everyone so strongly signals that her deplorable behavior is not disqualifying?

The Twin Cities’ paper of record, has ceased to be that. They are compromised. After Ann Kim’s union-busting messages were published, the Star Tribune continued to openly celebrate her, and they did nothing short of bury the news of her continued union busting efforts, and the union itself, in their own reporting. The Star Tribune actively weaponized copyright law to have my reporting, the evidence of Ann Kim’s union-busting efforts, removed from social media, and they refuse to retract their bad-faith copyright claim.

The union-busting public relations representative that Ann Kim hired to help bust her staff’s union, Blois Olson of Fluence Media, regularly places pieces for his clients into the Star Tribune. The paper’s interest in continued access to problematic figures is demonstrably driving their failure in reporting. The Star Tribune’s prioritization of access over accountability has been reaffirmed with every step of this union-busting story.

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A screenshot of a May 9, 2024 Instagram place by Blois Olson on his public relations company account. The caption describes Olson getting two story placements in a single issue of the Star Tribune.

Instagram

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Ann Kim will bury her restaurant’s union if this story remains local to the Twin Cities. The Kim’s closure news precisely coincides with the opening day of the Minnesota State Fair, and the fair will continue beyond when the restaurant closes. It's hard to imagine that this isn't intentional. This story must reach beyond the Twin Cities.

Ann Kim’s union-busting efforts, the depths of her and Blois Olson’s union-busting playbook, and the active efforts of the Star Tribune to interfere with independent reporting should be discussed broadly, and the implications thereof are nationally relevant. This disgraceful behavior of Ann Kim and the Star Tribune are a shame to this region, and for anything to ever change, for any accountability to ever be seen, this must be seen widely and beyond the realm in which they can control the narrative of their harm.

Updates

Ann Kim abruptly closed Kim’s four days earlier than initially announced: August 26th was the final day of service at the restaurant. The union filed a complaint with the National Labor Review Board (NLRB) over the closing.

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A screenshot of Kim’s website announcing that Kim’s is closed as of August 27.

kimsmpls.com

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On December 15, 2024, Instagram restored access to my Instagram post reporting on Ann Kim after the Star Tribune (now officially known as the Minnesota Star Tribune) filed a DMCA claim against it. The post was restored almost immediately after I communicated with Meta's chief legal officer.

The Star Tribune announced a partnership between Target and Ann Kim on a line of frozen pizzas and dumplings amid a boycott over Target announcing the end of their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in response to the Trump administration’s attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. The Star Tribune’s article about the Target collaboration featured an uncritical interview with Ann Kim. The article made no mention of her union busting, and it lacked any context with regard to Target’s right-wing turn.

Ann Kim promoted an event from the We Love Minneapolis political action committee (PAC), chaired by a 2024 donor to the Republican Party of Minnesota. The post Ann Kim shared specifically noted that Democratic-Farmer Labor (DFL) candidates have won more than 90% of Minneapolis City Council elections (the DFL is Minnesota's party affiliated with the national Democratic party). The PAC’s goal is to disrupt the DFL endorsement process.

After DFL Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez urged against engaging with the We Love Minneapolis PAC, the PAC’s chair denied being a Republican. A Republican group defended the PAC. Again, the chair of the We Love Minneapolis PAC donated to the Republican Party of Minnesota in 2024.

Ann Kim’s post represents an effort to shift Minneapolis City Council representation away from the DFL. It’s an effort that clearly serves to help Republicans, and through this action, Ann Kim has revealed herself as a Republican. As Ann Kim promoted a We Love Minneapolis PAC event, the Trump administration is reported to be choosing an anti-union lawyer to head the NLRB. Recall that the Kim’s union filed a complaint against Ann Kim with the NLRB.

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A screenshot of Ann Kim’s Instagram Story promoting a Republican event. Posted on March 16, 2025.

kimsmpls.com

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On June 9, 2025, Ann Kim was sued for $143,169 in Hennepin County District Court by the landlord of her pizzeria Young Joni for unpaid rent. The civil complaint named Ann Kim; Conrad Leifur, Kim’s husband and the chief financial officer of her restaurant group Vestalia Hospitality; and Pizzeria Lola NE L.L.C. (doing business as Young Joni).

The landlord offered arbitration to resolve the dispute but claimed in the complaint that the offer was declined: “‘On June 3, 2024, Young Joni declined to participate in arbitration stating it did not have “‘the time and energy to go through such a process’” due to ongoing union issues at other restaurants Kim owned.’” I can not speak to whether or not Ann Kim herself used that wording “‘restaurants’”, plural.

On June 3, 2024 Ann Kim likely would have had time to deal with arbitration had she let the Kim’s employees engage with their June 27 unionization vote without interference. Instead, she employed the services of union-busting public-relations representative Blois Olson and engaged in a union-busting campaign throughout the month.

Just over a week after the lawsuit was filed, on June 16, 2025, the Star Tribune reported that Ann Kim announced Young Joni’s closure, effective September 14, 2025. The Star Tribune published, “‘After tonight, Young Joni will be gone. Can we stop trying to cancel Ann Kim?’”, and I wrote a response.