Baristas at Nestlé owned coffee chain conduct walkout
Boston, MA - Today, baristas from the Blue Bottle Independent Union (BBIU) conducted a walkout across three out of five Boston-area locations from the Nestlé-owned coffee chain Blue Bottle Coffee. The union claims that the 7 minute and 59 second walkout was a symbolic action taken over the company’s decision to close their Prudential Center (the Pru) location for renovations without guaranteeing hours or a tip differential to workers transferred to other locations.
In a letter read outloud to management, union baristas exclaimed, “Blue Bottle has so far delayed negotiating over our core demands and most recently negotiated in bad faith with us over the recent closure of the Prudential location. Blue Bottle went ahead with the closure without an agreement from the Union membership.” Union baristas criticized the company’s decision to close the Pru without guaranteeing hours or a tip differential. They claimed that when they attempted to negotiate with the company over the Pru’s closure that they had proposed a tip differential based on the average tip amount for those workers being relocated of $7.59 an hour.
“In the last few months, Blue Bottle has created an unnecessarily tense work environment for union supporters and continues to be disrespectful throughout this process,” said BBIU President Rocky Prull. Despite Blue Bottle’s initial commitment to engage with unionized workers in a collaborative manner, Blue Bottle has retained the legal council of Ogletree Deakins, the second largest employer-side law firm in the U.S. specializing in “union avoidance.” Ogletree Deakins has previously represented Nestlé in multiple unfair labor practice cases.
Since winning recognition, however, BBIU alleges that Blue Bottle has become increasingly hostile to baristas. The union has filed 16 unfair labor practice complaints against the company, alleging that Blue Bottle engaged in union busting by writing up members for petty infractions, cutting hours of vocal supporters, unilaterally changing store operating hours without bargaining with the union, and more. In another unforced error by management, in September Blue Bottle fired union organizer Remy Roskin without any prior discipline. Even with the company agreeing to bargain over Roskin’s termination, workers say that Blue Bottle has unnecessarily strained the relationship between management and employees. Lex Brown, a barista who’s been at Blue Bottle for nearly three years, said of the current atmosphere, “Management and company representatives haven’t been taking us seriously. Claiming to be neutral but engaging in anti-union actions is hypocritical. If they were truly neutral, then why do they keep tearing down ‘know your rights’ flyers?”
Even still, workers remain hopeful that they will win a strong contract. Prull ended with “The more difficult management chooses to make this, the more we’re ready to fight.” Whether the workers will be able to win concessions from a subsidiary of what industry analysts have referred to as “one of the most hated companies in the world” remains to be seen. What is certain is that with over three years of high inflation and rising costs of living, baristas feel like they deserve more from their workplaces.
