Sony Music Closes Minneapolis Punk-Merch Warehouse Days After Union Vote

Sony Music announced on June 23 that it will shut the Kings Road Merch warehouse in Minneapolis, a facility that fulfills merchandise orders for punk acts such as Rancid, Descendents, Dropkick Murphys and Converge. The decision was made hours before the company’s first scheduled bargaining session with the newly formed Kings Road Merch Union, whose members had voted unanimously to unionize on May 11. Workers say the timing suggests an effort to undermine the unionization drive.

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• April 9 – Staff formally petitioned warehouse manager to organize under Teamsters Local 970.

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• April 27 – Sony’s lawyers held a Zoom call with Teamsters Local 970 president Chad Reichow, during which the company disclosed a pending closure but gave no specific date.

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• May 11 – Union election held; workers voted to unionize.

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• June 23 – Sony publicly announced the warehouse’s shutdown, stating the decision had been “many months in the making.”

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Sony acquired Kings Road Merch, along with its client roster that includes Neko Case and Tom Waits, through its subsidiary The Orchard in June 2025. The brief interval between acquisition and closure has led observers to question whether Sony valued the brand and client relationships more than the physical distribution operation.

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A Sony spokesperson told Pitchfork that the closure decision predated awareness of the unionization effort and declined to provide documentation, citing ongoing negotiations. The company framed the April 27 Zoom call as a “good-faith disclosure” to inform the union before the election proceeded. Teamsters president Chad Reichow acknowledged the closure as a legitimate business choice but noted the timing was “just not great.”

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Union supporters characterized the shutdown as an “idle threat” aimed at pressuring workers to abandon collective bargaining. Reichow described Sony’s behavior as a “bluff” and expressed suspicion that the move was intended to deter future organizing attempts.

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• “I just took it as a big corporation idle threat, basically, trying to see if you’d back off,” — Chad Reichow, Teamsters Local 970 President

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• “And they were like, ‘Well, we don’t know yet,’” — Chad Reichow recalling the Zoom call

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• “So I just basically took it as a bluff.” — Chad Reichow

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• “Obviously, right after somebody unionizes, the first thing you’re going to think of is union busting.” — Unnamed commentator quoted in the article

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