UPDATE– 05/05 NOTICE OF CLOSURE

Miss Kelly’s Cafe & Bakery has officially closed its doors yesterday, 05/05/2022. We have been forced to close our business due to the UC Regents Policy 5402, which we were suddenly made privy to almost two weeks ago. We are simply not able to increase our labor costs to the threshold required by the policy (all employees required to make at least $28.55), and therefore will be closing. We are so incredibly thankful to those of you that have signed our petition and advocated for us to UCI administrators. Our voices were simply too few and not loud enough to keep our business open. 

Thank you all for the love and support of the last 30 years,

Alan and Kelly Jeffrey

ORIGINAL 04/28 LETTER

Dear friends,

Miss Kelly's Cafe will begin its 29th year of “Serving UCI” on August 13th!  

On March 14th we were notified by our contract administrator that UCI was offering to extend our current 10-year agreement an additional 4 years (see 'updates' section below for email).

On April 7th we attended a meeting for what we believed would be a discussion of the new lease agreement terms.

Instead, UCI administrators rescinded their leasing proposal and informed us that due to UC Regents Policy 5402 (approved in Nov 2019) we would need to convert our employees to unionized UCI employees and sign a licensing agreement. 

Converting our employees to UCI employees would include a very significant labor cost increase (a 40% increase), inclusive of health care benefits, retirement, etc. For context, all of our baristas are well above minimum wage, plus hourly tips. Unfortunately, this dramatic increase of labor costs would quickly make Miss Kelly’s unprofitable.

As the proposed licensing agreement was vague (and did not include any documentation), UCI administrators offered to extend our current leasing agreement for the next 4-6 months, to provide us with time to find a solution for keeping Miss Kelly’s at UCI.

On Monday (04/25), they scheduled a follow-up meeting via ZOOM. In short, they reduced our current leasing agreement extension to 30 days, and stated we would have to start paying UCI union wages the following Monday (05/02) or close.

We are unable to afford such a dramatic increase in labor costs. If we did close, what happens to our staff? It is unclear if we were forced to close whether our 7 (awesome) employees would even have a job. 

So we have decided to remain open and continue “Serving UCI!” while we work towards a realistic solution. Show your support by demanding that UCI facilitate options for Miss Kelly’s to remain open (by upholding our original leasing agreement, or assisting with licensing company) [revised] !

There are several ways you can support Miss Kelly’s staying at UCI:

• Send letters of support to UCI (chancellor@uci.edu) and UC Regents (regentsoffice@ucop.edu)
• Sign our petition and repost our petition on social media
• Post your support with #keepmisskellys on social media
• Let your co-workers, friends & family know!

UPDATED 05/01/2022 —

• Miss Kelly’s supports unions! We are open to licensing another company to continue the Miss Kelly’s Cafe & Bakery brand at UCI Medical Center for years to come!
• Miss Kelly’s would love to work towards a solution that would allow our employees to become UCI employees with full benefits! 

Thank you all for nearly 30 years of love & support, 

Kelly & Alan Jeffrey  <3