Seattle restaurant group behind Capitol Hill steakhouse Jeffry’s faces union strike at Ballard’s The Walrus and the Carpenter

(Image: @united.creatures.of.the.sea)

Ballard’s The Walrus and the Carpenter has become the center of strife between management and workers at a family of Seattle restaurants that includes Capitol Hill steakhouse Jeffry’s that ownership says is bleeding money and drowning in debt.

Pickets by the independent union were planned to continue Thursday as the restaurant reopened after a closure this week due to the labor actions.

The United Creatures of the Sea union says its strike against the Renee Erickson-led Sea Creatures restaurant group comes after a year of negotiations:

For more than a year, unionized workers at Renee Erickson’s Sea Creatures group have attempted to secure a fair first contract through bargaining and legal channels.

During that time, workers believe that Sea Creatures has engaged in a sustained pattern of unfair labor practices intended to undermine the union, stall negotiations, and evade bargaining obligations until the workers either give up or are forced to move on.

Charges filed with the NLRB claim that Sea Creatures has engaged in surface bargaining, severely limited bargaining sessions, refused to provide information, made changes to hours and working conditions without notice or bargaining, bypassed the union by directly dealing with employees, retaliated against union support through firings, closures, and layoffs, and transferred union work to salaried management in order to replace union labor and further erode the union’s bargaining power.

The organized workers claim “cooks, shuckers, servers, dishwashers, bartenders, bakers, and baristas” have faced “reduced hours, lost income, degraded benefits, instability, and ongoing pressure” during the push for a contract.

In a statement, ownership including Erickson and managing partner Jeremy Price detail severe economic pressures on the restaurant group as the 2025 customer base dropped 40% from 2023 levels. Rising labor and operational costs forced a shift to a service charge model in January 2025, triggering unionization at three locations and contract disputes. To mitigate heavy financial losses, the company says, management permanently closed one location and temporarily shuttered others.

According to documentation shared publicly by the restaurant group, the company claims it lost more than $780,000 in 2025 on some $17 million in gross sales. It also carries some $10 million in debt, according to the documents.

Meanwhile, the group asserts that its pay far exceeds Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics averages for the Seattle metro area.

When the union issued an ultimatum last week, followed by a strike at The Walrus and the Carpenter, ownership says it chose to remain open using volunteer staff to safeguard the company’s survival.

CHS reported earlier this year on how the financial challenges and labor issues around Sea Creatures were playing out on Capitol Hill. In March, the group reopened its 10th and Union Bateau steakhouse as Jeffry’s, saying the concept and business model had been overhauled and streamlined to help address soaring costs and falling profits.

Jeffry’s ownership said then that its negotiations with the organized workers was ongoing. “Our current relationship with the union’s positive and productive,” Price told CHS at the time. “We meet regularly, and I believe we are very close to reaching collective bargaining agreements. While we work toward this goal, Jeffry’s remains a unionized workplace.”

According to the company’s statement this week, the restaurant group believed the two sides had reached a tentative agreement in early March until the union returned to the table asking for revisions “concerning healthcare and retirement benefits.”

The restaurant group claims last week as “ownership and members of our leadership team were working an event associated with the World Cup on Pier 62,” it was hit with an ultimatum that employees in Ballard would strike unless the company agreed to the union’s latest proposal “within one hour.”

With the strike underway, the two sides have exchanged barbs including the company’s contention that it “received evidence that a substantial majority of employees working at Jeffry’s, formerly Bateau, no longer wished to be represented by the union.”

“While that development reflected the views of those employees, it did not change our commitment to bargaining with the certified bargaining units that remained,” Sea Creatures ownership said in its statement.

The organized workers, buoyed by support from labor groups and advocates including former city council member and current congressional candidate Kshama Sawant, are standing strong in Ballard and calling for more to join them.

“Every act of solidarity by a purveyor, service provider, or operator reminds Renee Erickson and her company that our workers are not alone in their fight for good faith bargaining and a fair contract,” they write. “Support can come from anyone. The picket lines is anywhere you take a stand.”

You can review the Sea Creatures statement and financial documents here. Updates from the company are available @eatseacreatures.

Follow @united.creatures.of.the.sea for updates from the union.

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