WHAT WE'RE READING: Punks Voted to Unionize A Merch Warehouse. Sony Music Plans To Shut It Down
Harold Phillips | Published on 7/9/2026
From see/saw:
"Cesar Esparza started working at Kings Road Merch over 12 years ago. This was well before the company was acquired by Sony Music—back when Esparza and the warehouse were both based in Los Angeles. 'It was a place where punks got hired,' he tells me in the parking lot outside a punk show at a Minneapolis warehouse.
Culturally, it makes sense that punks were drawn to Kings Road. It was founded by Epitaph Records and Bad Religion’s Brett Gurewitz, and it serves as the merch partner for some of the biggest punk bands going: Rancid, Touché Amoré, Descendents, Circle Jerks, Converge, Dropkick Murphys, the Chats, Refused, and Propaghandi, to name a few."
"...after discussing frustrations around pay and other issues, the workers voted unanimously to unionize earlier this year. Then, on the morning of June 23—hours before their first contract bargaining session—the union was informed by a lawyer representing Sony Music Entertainment of the company’s plan to shutter the warehouse in September."
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