and that is some real mixed news. on the one paw, im happy that the union is happening and that the owner of the cafe seems to be supportive of the workers unionizing. the union statement is here but ive copied and pasted it below the break if you dont have an account on the cursedness that is fetlife. it sucks that the workers have been struggling for so long, and i hope unionizing helps turn things around.

and on the other paw, the food and drinks menu going away, the cafe part of the business basically closing, is hitting me kinda hard. even tho i live far away from it now, i have good memories tied to the uniqueness of wicked grounds as a queer kink cafe. the place i spent a christmas listening to halloween music on the cafe speakers and playing board games with queer girls. the place i met up with other littles when i, for some reason, decided to make folsom street fair 2019 the first kink event i ever went to. probably the only place in the world that has a littles menu holy shit. do you know how good that feels? do you know how much that means?

there was something utterly unique and a little surreal about a explicitly queer, explicitly pro-kink cafe, where light play and light kink attire was allowed. it was a space that felt inclusive and welcoming in a way nothing else ever has. for all the supposedly queer cafes in seattle with rainbow flags in their window, i couldnt bring my girlfriend into any of them on a leash. it was a complete miracle that it ever existed, and im deeply sad that that part of the space is going away.

anyways, as sad as the cafe closing is, wicked grounds is not going away, it will continue to be a store and community kink education space, and needs support to keep operating, so consider supporting them in whatever way you can

The Workers of Wicked Grounds Are Unionizing

We, the united workers of the Wicked Grounds cafe, boutique, and events space, have come together to make a plea to the broader community. We are calling on you for your support and solidarity in maintaining a safe, sustainable, and ethical community hub. We have chosen to speak up publicly in this way only after many attempts by workers past and present who have advocated fruitlessly for years to bring positive change to this organization.

Frankly, we have been struggling. We have been struggling on a daily basis to keep the space afloat against a tidal wave of disrespect and neglect. To stay housed and to eat in the face of shrinking hours and insufficient pay. To keep the cafe open, even for the limited reduced hours, due to understaffing that leaves us scrambling if a single worker falls ill. To make your coffee every day when most of the tools we use are literally falling apart. To keep ourselves and our patrons safe despite a lack of resources for maintenance and no protocols for keeping the space clean long term. We have been struggling to solve any of these problems, because we lack both the authority to implement changes, and the financial information necessary to know which changes are even feasible.

We have been informed that the cafe is being removed from the business entirely for financial reasons. While this change may alleviate some of the problems with revenue, it does nothing to address the other managerial, organizational, and ethical problems that affect us all as workers and as community members.

That is why we are asking you to support the union in our work representing the interests of the workers and the community.

We are not calling for a boycott. We are not going on strike. We are calling for community support. Support us by participating in events at the cafe and annex, tipping your baristas, shopping at the boutique, and spreading the word on social media.

We believe deeply in the value of a space like this. Each of us took jobs at Wicked Grounds because we wanted to support a community where kinky people could express themselves and experiment without fear of ridicule, and where queer and trans people could simply exist without fear of violence or cruelty. For many of us, as for many of you in the community at large, this was the first place we felt able to truly be ourselves.

There is nowhere else like Wicked Grounds: a sober, zero-dollar-barrier-to-entry, sex-positive, kink-positive, polyamory-positive, queer-normative community hub. Wicked Grounds is our community. Wicked Grounds is the events workers, the baristas, and the party vendors. Wicked Grounds is the munch leaders, the instructors, and the play-shop hosts. Wicked Grounds is the leather pups and the littles and the queer crafters. Wicked Grounds is the regulars who know us each by name and pronouns, the curious newbies who have never seen a flogger in their lives, and the international visitors who stop by amazed that a place like this is allowed to exist at all. Wicked Grounds is not one single person, which is why one single person should not have the ability to unilaterally make every decision about the direction the organization will take.

Support Wicked Grounds. Support our union.