PDX Eater
by Brooke Jackson-Glidden
Feb 22, 2022
When Mirisata, the vegan Sri Lankan pop-up, announced its plans to open a SE Belmont restaurant, the ownership team noted that the business would be worker-owned — in other words, a co-op. At the time, there were very few truly worker-owned restaurants in Portland, if any; since then, other bars and restaurants have played with versions of worker ownership, from places like Ripe Cooperative and Kachka offering profit sharing to Workers Tap’s fully democratized ownership model.
But Mirisata isn’t exclusively run by worker-owners. Worker-ownership is only eligible for employees working more than 32 hours per week at Mirisata, and new full-time employees need to stick around for a six-month trial period before officially becoming worker-owners. Plus, not every employee is interested in the responsibilities or commitment of becoming a worker-owner. So, last week, a group of Mirisata’s employees did something unusual within the co-op world: They unionized.
On February 16, a group of part-time and worker-owner candidates presented the worker-owners of Mirisata with signed union authorization cards and a letter of voluntary recognition. Ownership agreed to voluntarily recognize the union, which means they don’t have to file for an official election with the National Labor Relations Board.