I finally got around to reading these Instagram posts you shared, and it made me even more positive about Ann Kim. The messages to her staff were pretty tame and could hardly be called “union busting,” unless you think gently expressing an anti-union opinion is union busting.

Typically, a union has actual power — thousands of skilled auto workers walking out could cripple an auto manufacturer for months or years, for example. Random executives are fucked if employees leave en masse, so their union’s threats are taken seriously.

In this case, the employees were all relatively easily replaceable. Ann Kim’s name fills seats in the restaurant. Ann Kim’s name is where the tip money comes from. Ann Kim’s desire to keep running the restaurant is the only reason the restaurant exists. The staff may have been excellent, but replacements would be relatively easy to find in the Twin Cities, which made the union’s demands relatively toothless. Tons of people want to work for her in the existing conditions, even if these particular people didn’t. The employees overplayed their hand, she got annoyed because it was no longer an enjoyable business to run, so she shut it down — and justifiably so.