Utah’s oldest LGBTQ+ bar closes amid workers’ union push: ‘We feel extremely disposable’

Salt Lake City’s oldest and longest-running LGBTQ+ bar has closed, with workers claiming the shuttering was a “stunt” to prevent unionization. The SunTrapp, widely considered the oldest LGBTQ+ bar in Utah was founded in 1973 and is one of the few safe havens for the community. It shut on 31 October after workers pushed to unionize. Workers who spoke with the Guardian allege the owner of the bar engaged in numerous unfair labor practices after they submitted a letter requesting voluntary recognition of the union with Communications Workers of America Local 7765 in late September. In a Republican dominated state ranked as one of the least safe states in the US for the LGBTQ+ community, workers called the bar “a really special place” and a safe haven for the community. The bar had to increase security after the Charlie Kirk assassination that occurred in Utah in September heightened concerns over threats toward the community. “It’s a really special place where you can go and be judgment free,” Natalie Jankowski, a lead bartender at the SunTrapp, told the Guardian. “We have a lot of older queer people, older trans people, who feel comfortable coming there and nowhere else. We have a lot of Mormons who just left Mormonism who want to have their first drink, judgment free, come there, and we get a lot of people who are questioning their sexuality and they just want to talk to the bar staff about it.” Jankowski explained she had worked at the bar through previous closures under different owners, and had watched as staff concerns went unheard. “I watched them make mistakes here and there, not be willing to hear out the queer staff that they were employing to try and bring the bar up, and then they lost the bar. And as staff, we were kind of watching that same thing happen again,” she said. “The staff has very good reason to believe that this is a stunt. I also don’t think it’s fair to tell a group of young queer people who have been part of this community longer than the owner to just leave and get a new job if we don’t like it.” Morgan Sturgill, another bartender at SunTrapp, explained the unionization drive stemmed from the close-knit community of staff at the bar and the collective drive for improvements and a desire to have a voice on policy implementations and accountability for management. “We all cared about it so much, and just wanted it to be a place that everybody had a voice to be able to change policy, to be able to have a say in how things were run,” said Sturgill. “The owner has refused to really talk with us at all and have any sort of conversation with us about it, and is just refusing to acknowledge that the demands we are setting out are completely reasonable. She just wants to prevent unionization at all.” Beltsazzar Valenzuela, who worked as a barback, bartender and security at the bar, noted “all of us were customers at some point before we started working there.” “We’re asking for accountability for the most part. That’s the biggest thing, is accountability,” Valenzuela said. “I feel like a good faith conversation would have resolved this in like 10 minutes.” The owner, Mary Peterson, fired many of the workers after they sought to unionize, then rehired them. She stated in a video post on social media that she had to hire them back as she wasn’t initially aware it wasn’t legal to fire them for unionizing. She also claimed the bar, which employs around two dozen workers, was “too small” to unionize, though there are no legal exceptions barring workers at small employers from unionizing. “I did fire them because I felt like they were a threat to the business. I thought that they were coming after me saying, you know, unionize or we’re going to take you out, which ultimately is happening to me now,” said Peterson. Workers claim the owner then began implementing new policies they say were designed to entrap workers to justify firing them, such as changing the drink menu and strictly enforcing late policies. They began an unfair labor practice strike in early October after a security guard and union supporter at the bar was fired. The union has called on the bar to rescind the firing and its policies enacted after the union went public, and allow a fair union election to proceed. “She started handing out people’s final warning, final written warnings for stuff that they had never been approached about. She started enacting some policies that were meant to trap us,” added Jankowski. Due to the government shutdown, the National Labor Relations Board website has been down, halting the formal union election process and the filing and processing of unfair labor practice charges. The union alluded to the closure several weeks ago, citing it as a common union-busting tactic. Then on 31 October, the bar announced its closure, claiming “the financial impact of consistent protests” caused the closure, and noted a “path forward” for the bar remains unclear. “I personally feel that the pseudo closure of the Trap, is a way to fear monger an already marginalized community who is in distress and in fear,” said Yara Al-Badri, the social media marketer and event planner for the bar. “We live in a world where queer people feel extremely unsafe, especially right now, in this political climate, and we feel extremely disposable.” Peterson and the SunTrapp did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Guardian.