We returned to the Kauai Coffee visitor center this week. What brought us back was a new development. Kauai Coffee quietly extended its WARN notice to roughly 140 workers on March 5, pushing the original layoff timeline further out while lease negotiations continue.
We saw a parking lot full of cars, with visitors still lining up for coffee samples on the lanai. In some ways, it seems busier than ever. Maybe that’s because the uncertainty has been so widely publicized. The employees pouring coffee and working in the shop and food service aren’t sure how much longer they’ll have jobs, and that’s where this tragedy has landed.
If you didn’t already know the backstory, you wouldn’t think anything was wrong. There are no signs posted, and nobody is making announcements to visitors. In fact, if anything, they are avoiding talking about what’s going on. The entire farm looks like a place that expects to be open tomorrow, next month, and next year.
Talking to employees tells a different story. One woman who appeared to be a manager shut down the conversation quickly and said they didn’t know anything beyond what had already been reported publicly. Other workers on this visit, and on previous ones, were more transparent about how things feel inside the operation right now.
What we kept hearing from employees was uncertainty.
Several employees said they still don’t know whether negotiations between the companies involved are improving or simply stretching out the same deadline. Others said they have already taken second or pending jobs because they cannot assume they will still be employed in a few weeks.
Last Thursday, the company extended its WARN notice to about 140 employees. The original filing warned layoffs could begin March 14 and run through March 28, the day the farm’s land lease expires. The new notice gives workers another short extension while negotiations continue.
General manager Brian Kubicki confirmed that the company plans to extend the WARN notice monthly while discussions continue past the original lease deadline. Kauai Coffee says it has no plans to shut down operations, but the rolling extensions mean the workers are living on rolling deadlines of just one month.
Each extension buys a little time and pushes the layoff start date back. None of the employees we spoke with said they knew how the negotiations were actually going or what the final outcome might be.
The basic dispute between the two companies remains unchanged.
Kauai Coffee’s WARN filing says the company is being forced out of business because its lease is not being renewed. The landowner, Brue Baukol Capital Partners, says the operator is choosing not to renew the lease.
BBCP has posted its version of events on a website, kauaicoffeefacts.com, where it says it intends to keep coffee growing on the land if Kauai Coffee leaves. Kauai Coffee’s position remains that the company is being pushed out. Both claims clearly cannot be true at the same time.
From the parking lot, the farm still looks as good as ever. Visitors walk in, drink coffee, and leave with bags from the gift shop. Inside the workforce is waiting to find out whether the next extension leads to a deal or the same outcome pushed a few weeks further down the road.
The visitor center is still open, and the coffee samples are still being poured. The people pouring it are still waiting to find out what happens next, and how their work lives will unfold.
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