Moka & Co workers go on strike over alleged unpaid tips

The Ann Arbor location of Yemeni coffee chain Moka & Co was unexpectedly closed Tuesday as employees went on strike, forming a picket line outside the business. The striking workers alleged managing partner Ahmed Alrayashi failed to distribute approximately $1,638.86 of the $4045.74 in tips that employees say they were owed between November 2025 and February 2026. 

Workers sent a letter to Alrayashi on March 3, giving him a one-week deadline to meet their demands of properly distributing the missing tips and reforming the tipping system to ensure transparency. Alrayashi distributed part of the missing tips before the strike deadline, but left approximately $874 unaccounted for and did not respond to demands for tipping reform. In response, employees conducted a full work stoppage.

LSA junior Emma Sital, a Moka & Co employee and strike organizer, said in a speech that the strike was a result of workers’ unmet demands.

“Ahmed, we — the workers of Moka & Co of Ann Arbor Workers Collective — have decided to do a full work stoppage today,” Sital said. “This means that no worker will clock in or cover any shift today. This is a direct result of your failure to meet workers’ demands that were sent to you one week ago.”

According to Sital, this is not the first time Alrayashi has withheld tips from Moka & Co staff. She told the crowd workers have repeatedly needed to confront him in person to receive the tips they were owed.

“This seems to be a philosophy that I think is best represented by one of the first few weeks I started working, when a worker asked our manager why they weren’t getting their tips sometimes,” Sital said. “You know what the manager told us? He told us closed mouths won’t get fed, meaning that unless you bring up this concern very directly, very publicly, open in front of everybody, they’re not going to do a thing.”

Alrayashi also manages a Moka & Co location in East Lansing. One worker from this store, Franka Schauss, told the crowd that Moka & Co workers in East Lansing are facing similar problems with tip payments.

“We also have the same issues with the tips, where there will be no transparency about how they’re getting divided,” Schauss said. “We’ve had some other issues that I believe aren’t issues at this location, but we haven’t received our W-2s. I just now received my W-2 last night. … What else, we do not get paid every two weeks. Sometimes we’ll have to wait about a week and a half (later) to get our pay.” 

Schauss later told The Daily that pay delays at the East Lansing location varied significantly, sometimes lasting a few days and sometimes lasting significantly longer. Additionally, Schauss said Alrayashi occasionally made late payments through physical checks, which he required workers to pick up in person.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Sital said the strike was a first for the coffee shop and employees were prepared to continue until they were properly paid.

“As far as I know there’s never been an organized staff working to get their demands made under this management,” Sital said. “The plan right now is we are officially on strike for today; we will see how management responds to that. If it needs to go further, we’re willing to go further. We have the full staff support — that’s big.”

In a message to The Daily, Alrayashi claimed that all tips between November and February had been properly distributed.

“I’m sure this is a big misunderstanding,” Alrayashi wrote. “Employees were concerned that they weren’t paid all of their tips, $4045. It’s a pooled tip system, and tips are divided based on percent of hours worked. ALL employees were paid out of tips they have earned.”

Moka & Co workers disputed this claim, alleging that Alrayashi under-reported their hours in order to allocate fewer tips to them. Employees also reported receiving late payment through informal payment services such as Zelle, instead of typical pay stubs. Alrayashi confirmed that both methods were used to pay employees at different times.

Concluding his message, Alrayashi said he wished his employees took less drastic measures to resolve the situation.

“I am not in the business of stealing barista tips,” Alrayashi wrote. “They are the team, they are the backbone. … they make my customers day and keep their cups full of coffee. I just wish they asked for help instead of the allegations and accusations.” 

Moka & Co staff said they approached Alrayashi multiple times to discuss tips before issuing a list of formal demands and striking.

Many of the picket’s attendees were not workers themselves, but community members attending in support. In an interview with The Daily, Public Health senior Erek Mirque said consumers should boycott the store until tips are disbursed.

“I used to come to Moka & Co at least once a week,” Mirque said. “It was one of my favorite spots, especially because my friends worked here. I will absolutely not spend a single dollar at Moka & Co until the owner pays all of their workers and meets their demands.”

International studies lecturer David Zeglen, a democratic socialist candidate for Ann Arbor City Council, also attended the picket. In an interview with The Daily, Zeglen said he formerly supported Moka & Co as a more ethical alternative to Starbucks — which he disapproves of due to the chain’s issues with workers’ rights and fraught relationship with the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement — and was disappointed in the company’s management.

“Places like Moka & Co are growing a lot in the city right now because of a lot of pushback against franchises like Starbucks,” Zeglen said. “Moka & Co has the opportunity to set a new standard to replace places like Starbucks, and I did support Moka & Co initially. … But now I will not support them whatsoever until they actually treat their workers with fairness, dignity and respect.”

Sital told The Daily she hopes customers would reach out to Moka & Co to express disapproval of their management’s actions.

“You can ask for the manager, if the manager is in, and let him know that he needs to pay their workers,” Sital said. “You can message Moka & Co on their Instagram. You can respond to Google Reviews saying ‘Hey, pay your workers.’ We really want the public invested in what is going on; they’ve been really trying to hide this behind closed doors.”

Employees returned to work the next day, March 11, reporting that Moka & Co management started working with employees to address their concerns after the strike. Sital encouraged community members to keep monitoring the situation as it is resolved.

Daily News Editor Glenn Hedin can be reached at heglenn@umich.edu. 

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