Meet the brave baristas of Blue Bottle Independent Union.
Blue Bottle Coffee isn’t as big as another coffee chain where workers are fighting for their right to unionize—but you need to know about this campaign!
These baristas can’t make ends meet, but Nestlé makes billions
Blue Bottle’s 76 cafes are concentrated in some of the highest cost-of-living cities in the United States. New York, San Francisco, Washington, and Boston. But even as Blue Bottle is famous for having the best coffee in the industry, the baristas who pour their skills and knowledge into every stroke of latte art can’t make ends meet.
That’s why six Boston area cafes formed Blue Bottle Independent Union, and workers are just beginning their fight for a first contract.
Blue Bottle Independent Union isn’t just up against a small coffee chain. They’re fighting Nestlé, the billion-dollar corporation that owns Blue Bottle and is known for its history of human rights controversies.
Blue Bottle is a company with a progressive veneer coating a corporation that’s as greedy as any other. The Blue Bottle website boasts that the company is building “a sustainable future for our people.” But the truth is that working at Blue Bottle simply isn’t sustainable for the baristas.
In the words of Rocky Prull, Blue Bottle barista and President of Blue Bottle Independent Union:
“We’re tired of working for a company owned by one of the largest corporations in the world, while constantly being told that our employer ‘can’t afford’ to provide us a living wage, even as we struggle to make ends meet in one of the highest cost of living cities in the country.
A single person in Boston needs to earn well over 100k per year in order to live comfortably. Last year, I made 27k. Meanwhile, Nestlé made billions in profits.
It’s time for us as Blue Bottle baristas to have a say in our workplace, a living wage, predictable schedules, and benefits that meet our needs.”
Help Blue Bottle Independent Union build a strike fund and take on Nestlé
The baristas of Blue Bottle Independent Union are ready to take Nestlé on. They’ve already unionized 6 cafes–8% of the locations in the U.S.–and are united in their drive to achieve a fair union contract for their members.
But in order to win, the biggest thing BBIU needs right now is leverage.
Leverage to make their employer wake up, smell that coffee, and realize that they need to bargain in good faith or face a crisis.
For BBIU, that leverage is a strike fund.
A strike fund will allow BBIU to do what every employer fears the most: affect the company’s bottom line by withholding their labor if Blue Bottle refuses to sit down and negotiate in good faith.
In solidarity,
The Labor Force