💙💙💙 We have huge news: Blue Bottle Independent Union just won their first contract! 💙💙💙
For over two years, unionized baristas in Boston and the Bay Area battled with Blue Bottle for their fair share. Blue Bottle, an upscale coffee shop that up until recently was owned by Nestlé, didn’t fight fair: unlawful terminations. Retaliatory discipline. Bargaining in bad faith.
The union wasn’t having it. Baristas pushed back against union-busting every time. Marches on the boss. Walkouts. A five-day strike during the holiday season. And because baristas took collective action, they ultimately won the pay, benefits and working conditions they deserve.
Baristas won a 7% wage increase, a just cause clause to protect workers from arbitrary discipline, fair scheduling, job security, protections from customer harassment, and more.
Blue Bottle baristas accomplished all of this as a completely worker-led independent union. They didn’t have the backing of a large union, with the financial resources that might provide. Baristas won this contract on a shoestring budget and an abundance of heart, determination, and solidarity.
We can’t overstate the magnitude of this accomplishment. These workers won against a Goliath–and they did it on their terms.
The Labor Force community has been part of this fight from the beginning: donating to strike funds and GoFundMes for fired Blue Bottle workers, joining picket lines, and making phone calls to Blue Bottle management demanding they negotiate fairly with baristas. Your solidarity made this scrappy union even stronger when they needed it most.
That’s why we started The Labor Force. Roughly 70% of Americans support unions, but due to systemic obstacles to organizing, only about 10% of us are currently in a union. We’re here to build a more powerful labor movement, starting by bringing everyone, union member or not, into the fight. The fight for the working class’s fair share belongs to all of us.
In Solidarity,
The Labor Force