Negotiations have ceased between the owner and former employees of Shoofly Vegan Bakery for staff to potentially buy the business, both parties say. The former staffers are now in the process of opening their own business. 

Staff at the Southeast Portland bakery and cafe walked off the job on Friday, May 2, claiming many of their paychecks were late for what they said was the second pay period in a row–a claim the owner denies. They’ve since been locked out of the building, and haven’t returned to work. The bakery has been closed since the employee walkout. 

Immediately after the bakery’s closure, the employees banded together with ambitions of buying Shoofly from the current owner, Tien Vominh. Vominh purchased Shoofly from its original owner back in February. The bakery and cafe operated in a ground floor space of the Ford Building on Division Street. 

Both Vominh and the now former staff said they had been meeting periodically to discuss those plans, but after weeks of stalled conversations, they've moved on. 

Correspondence shared with the Mercury shows an erosion in attempts to negotiate terms for a sale of the business. In the most recent letter, staff said they’re no longer interested in negotiating, citing a breakdown in communication. 

“They submitted an offer, I accepted, and they later informed me they did not have the necessary funds,” Vominh told the Mercury via email on June 12, noting the group didn't reach out to the building's owners regarding a potential lease until early June.

“You asked me to front the cost of your acquisition by giving you access to my space, ingredients, equipment, license, vendor accounts, furnishings—the entire business—without actually buying it,” Vominh wrote to the group on June 5. 

The former employees dispute that, saying they initially offered to sublet the bakery from Vominh so they could have access to the equipment and work space, as one proposed solution during conversations about them taking over the business. 

In email exchanges between the two parties, a former employee responding on behalf of the group alluded to Vominh skipping out on a number of scheduled meetings. The staffer said the group’s offer was in earnest, but they didn’t think Vominh was serious about selling to them.

“This is a very strange and uncertain time for all of us and we do not have the security that you do,” a representative for the staff wrote to Vominh. “We truly are trying to handle this as professionally and respectfully as we are able to, and all we want is a fair, equitable, and swift resolution.”

A transfer of ownership may not be in the cards, but most of the former workers have stuck together, holding regular fundraising bake sales at various locations around Portland since the walkout in early May. 

They’re now in the process of starting their own business, Catscratch Co-Op Vegan Bakery.

“We have signed our lease,” Alex McCaulley, a former staffer, told the Mercury, noting the crew is still setting up the space on NE Halsey Street. 

The bake sale funds have helped the former Shoofly staffers replace lost wages and get startup capital for their new worker-owned business. To date, they’ve raised just over $22,400 through a GoFundMe fundraiser. 

McCaulley says so far, the bake sales have been successful, but Shoofly staff had to contend with a slow process to claim unemployment benefits.

McCaulley’s role was unique. She started out working for Vominh’s other business, Bluebird Bakers, last year. Bluebird Bakers is a wholesale cookie company that distributes its products to several local grocery stores and cafes. 

Vominh bought Bluebird from its original owners last year, before the Shoofly purchase. Eventually, McCaulley began working shifts at both businesses, but when Shoofly operations came to a halt, her weekly hours were reduced. In late May, McCaulley says Vominh told her her pay would transition from a salary to an hourly rate, meaning it would be cut to reflect reduced hours.

“This was going to be a $600 reduction per paycheck,” she said. “I could not possibly live on that pay.”

McCaulley quit the job.

Shoofly staff aren’t the only ones who’ve found themselves at odds with their former employer.

McCaulley is one of two former Bluebird employees who described a tenuous work atmosphere. McCaulley said it wasn't uncommon for staff of Bluebird to receive their paychecks late. She alleges it happened about half a dozen times during her nine-month stint there. 

Another former employee who spoke to the Mercury on background due to fear of professional retaliation, said they left after a pattern of mistreatment by Vominh. The ex-Bluebird employee also described a pattern of late, sometimes inaccurate paychecks. 

“It happened the entire time I worked with him,” the former staffer claimed, describing an environment that they say quickly became toxic and hostile. The former Bluebird staffer told the Mercury they had to consult BOLI to get their final paycheck. 

Vominh didn’t directly address questions about the alleged toxic work environment, but broadly described his former staffers’ complaints about payroll issues and workplace hostility as “false accounts and allegations.” 

"I was born and raised in Portland, and as a small business owner from the Vietnamese community, I know how important it is to honor the people and places we serve," Vominh said in a statement he released to media outlets in May. "I'm saddened by how things have unfolded."

He denies employee claims of late pay, noting he submitted paychecks via a third-party company called Paychex for same-day deposit on Fridays. Whether the payments hit the bank accounts that same day was beyond his control, he said.

“The timing of deposits depends on each employee’s bank. No wages have been withheld—ever,” Vominh's statement notes. He provided employee payroll records to the Mercury, noting “Paychex has confirmed that all transfers were received by the respective banks.”

Records show five wage and hour complaints were filed with Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries against Shoofly Bakery between April and early May. Two of them are listed as paid/closed. The other three complaints are still pending. It’s unclear whether BOLI has received complaints about Bluebird Bakers.

What comes next?

It's unclear when or if Shoofly will reopen. Vominh declined to answer questions about the bakery’s future. The windows of the cafe are now papered over, though the signage is still there.

As for the former staff, they say they’re preparing their new bakery site.

“Right now the property manager is altering the space a bit for us.” McCaulley says, noting they hope to open Catscratch Co-Op within a few weeks.