The SunTrapp, a tiny Salt Lake City gay bar that’s also Utah’s oldest, remains closed amid a dispute between the owner and employees over unionizing.

Both the owner, Mary Peterson, and striking employees claim they’re hoping to find “a path forward,” yet the bar remains shuttered.

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A notice went out on Instagram announcing the closure on Halloween.   

Employees call the bar’s shutdown a negotiating “stunt”.

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Peterson says they have not been able to move forward with unionizing during the shutdown; the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which facilitates union votes, is a federal agency.

That might change soon with the government reopening, but excuses still abound in the months-long saga.

Employees say they’ve been talking about organizing since Peterson bought the bar last year. She said it’s too small to unionize.

But there is no floor on the number of employees who can organize at a business, and Peterson later admitted in a Facebook video that she was ignorant about union rules.

That fact sowed much of the mistrust employees feel today about Peterson’s motives: When a group of organizers approached her with their union demand in September, she fired them.

That decision was illegal, according to the NLRB. But despite being hired back, the damage was done, according to employees.

Peterson balked at their demands, so they went on strike before a formal agreement was reached. They picketed on Friday and Saturday nights for weeks.

In her Facebook post, Peterson described herself as a victim of efforts by organizers to depict her as a “greedy capitalist”.

An accountant by trade, Peterson said she had the previous bar owners as clients, and even got her daughter a job at The SunTrapp as she was coming to terms with her sexuality.

“I never, ever wanted to buy a bar. That was never my goal, never my dream,” she said.

Nevertheless, she felt “a pull” to realize the bar’s potential, she said.

Now the SunTrapp is in danger of closing for good.

Peterson may or may not have come to terms with her staff’s unionizing efforts. In the Halloween closure statement, she said, “I want to be clear that I support the rights of all employees to choose whether they want to join a union.”

The business was “committed to engaging” in the next step, she said, which would have been the secret ballot election conducted by the NLRB.

“Unfortunately, because of the government shutdown, the National Labor Relations Board was closed and the election process was stopped,” she said.

Then Peterson blamed the striking staff for her inability to stay open.

“Sadly, the financial impact of consistent protests has made it impossible for us to remain open. As such, we will be closing the SunTrapp on October 31st, 2025.”

Peterson didn’t mention the fact she’d hired scab workers to replace those walking the picket line.

Natalie Jankowski, a lead bartender at The SunTrapp and a member of the SunTrapp Workers United organizing committee, told the Salt Lake Tribune that she and other union members believe Peterson doesn’t support their rights as they’ve worked to unionize with Communications Workers of America Local 7765.

Their lawyer went back and forth with Peterson’s attorney, unsuccessfully requesting a meeting as they picketed.

“She closed down instead of talking with us,” Jankowski said. “She had every opportunity to do that.”

Staff were in tears when they learned the news.

“It is profoundly sad that our owner saw our love for this place as a threat,” Jankowski said.

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