Homegrown employees have been uniting at numerous locations across the region to demand that management listens to growing safety concerns. Homegrown is a restaurant chain that serves sandwiches, salads and bowls with a focus on sustainability.

The Homegrown Redmond is the most recent location to unanimously vote to go on strike, with previous locations including the Mercer Island store, the Queen Anne store and the Capitol Hill location.

Employees of Homegrown have been speaking out about safety issues not being addressed both on the streets and through Twitter. Ella, an employee at Homegrown Mercer Island, stated in a video how she is frequently dizzy and lightheaded due to heat related stress.

A video dated August 22 features Natasha, who has been working as a shift lead for Homegrown Redmond for over three years.

“Our store is so smoky that not only employees, but the customers have noticed it, and the building is poorly ventilated–it’s made of brick,” said Natasha. “I even had to send a coworker home the other day because he was coughing so hard to the point of dry heaving because he couldn’t handle the smoke.”

In the video, Natasha relayed how every store employee has experienced issues with their eyes burning and tearing up due to the high levels of smoke and poor ventilation. Natasha also brought up how after talking to corporate about the issues, corporate did not provide any working solutions.

Due to the unresponsiveness of Homegrown management, employees across the region are preparing to go on strike any day now.

The Redmond Reporter reached out to Homegrown and received no response.