Employees of a Chicago sandwich chain opened their email on Sunday to find a surprise just before Christmas: they would all be without a job the next day.

An email went out to all 20 workers at a Snarf’s Sub Shop in Chicago Sunday night informing them that the store would be abruptly closing for an “unknown period of time” for remodeling and that they were all terminated as of Monday.

The employees were told they would receive their final paychecks on the Friday after Christmas and told to ”keep an eye out for the grand opening of the new store.”

The mass firing affects the entire staff of one of two Chicago locations of the Colorado-based company.

The announcement comes three weeks after Snarf’s employees joined other fast-food workers in a national strike demanding higher wages and better benefits, according to Chicago Grid, which confirmed the email with a company spokeswoman.

Jill Preston, Snarf’s director of marketing, told Chicago Grid that the termination was not related to the strike that left the restaurant shuttered for four days, but due to the slow business of the holiday season.

“This is something we’ve had planned for awhile,” Preston said of the remodel that employees were not informed of before Sunday’s email blast.

Members of the Worker’s Organizing Committee of Chicago and supporters gathered in front of the now-gated restaurant to call for the workers to get severance packages or their jobs back.

But if that doesn’t happen, Preston does invite the employees to reapply for their old jobs as soon as the new restaurant opens.