I work for a big chain of coffee shops that you've definitely heard of, maybe patronize, and are most likely aware has been undergoing a country-wide unionization movement for the past year or so. While on Twitter I was always very eager to share the various headlines detailing the victories of the movement and the abuses inflicted upon them by my employer, I was always pretty lowkey about my own experiences. Now I'm ready to spill the beans on my own store's unionization efforts.
I've always talked a big game about unionization, back in my last store when this was all getting kicked off I was basically the only dude that was following the stories, and I'd regularly share updates with my coworkers who all trended much younger and didn't really "get" the whole union thing but were really excited about the idea that things could conceivably get better instead of worse. I felt bad when I moved because while my new store had folks who were interested in it, they didn't have the same sort of "so when are we gonna unionize?" energy that my previous location did, and I didn't really know how to instill that in others.
As luck would have it, we'd receive a transfer from the east coast who was actually leaving a store they'd help unionize, and they would immediately start making moves to do the same in our store, and I voiced my support but left the actual work to someone who I presumed could do it better than myself. In retrospect, this was lazy, and cowardly thinking. I thought letting someone more experienced take the reigns was the responsible move, but what that really meant was I was just glad that I didn't have to back up any of my talk with actual action.
It seemed like things were going fine, but when the organizing barista made a play to create a group chat labelled "unionization efforts" that included everyone except our manager, another barista immediately voiced their disinterest and left, and then promptly went to inform management about what was going on. Overnight our store was papered over with anti-union propaganda, and our manager spent the next few days pulling people off the floor to have one-on-one captive audience meetings, where they would often burst into tears and alternate between saying they would support us no matter what and threatening to quit if we unionized. It was a clear divide-and-conquer tactic, and we were quickly divided and conquered.
The organizing partner, presumably knowing their future at our store would not be pleasant, elected to quit on their own terms and pursue a career as an electrician. Everything had fallen apart so fast, and I had only myself left to blame, and shoulder the responsibility for picking up the pieces. I'd been left with a link to get in touch with the local representatives for the regional union, and with no other leads, I scheduled a meeting with them and relayed what you've just read to them, and the gears began to turn once more.
Rather than use the awful app we'd been told to use for store communication, I rolled a modest little discord server and approached partners who I knew had been enthusiastic before their one-on-ones with our boss and asked them how those conversations made them feel, and what they had been told in them. I asked if they knew that the NLRB had issued a memo saying that they were allowed to opt-out of captive audience meetings, and if they were interested in comparing notes with other baristas. The response was positive, and I helped the ones who didn't already have discord accounts get set up with the app. (There are many legitimate arguments against discord, but when you need people to communicate who are drastically differing degrees of tech-savvy, I feel like it's the best option currently available.)
Communication in the discord was sparse at first. People were slow to join, and even more hesitant to talk. I had made it very clear to my boss that I wouldn't be swayed by any argument or emotional appeal, so I didn't even have the experience of my own one-on-one to get the ball rolling. I began to think the fight had just been wrung out of us, but with enough time and constant prodding from me, folks began to open up with each other. By comparing stories, they quickly realized they'd been told conflicting things from one another. A barista revealed they'd overheard our boss' boss congratulating them on "stopping the union", and that they would even potentially be tapped to teach other local managers how to do the same. Once they realized how much they'd been manipulated into being against the union, they became even more dead-set on having one.
Slowly but surely, and now with a healthy eye towards keeping our heads down, we began to talk with other partners. A lot of conversations that began with "We've been talking..." that would resolve in an invite to the server, regardless of whether they were fully on board or not. My role in the server was that of a moderator and mediator, providing information and guiding the conversation in such a way that baristas were able to realize just how much more they had in common with one another, and also how much they were being taken advantage of even in our relatively well-off store.
Things came to a head when after another meeting with the local union, we were asked if we felt ready to try to push for getting cards signed. We'd been doing a lot of talking until now, but it was time to start walking - and we had a non-binding deadline that served to light a fire under our ass while still being conceviably possible to hit. While we fell short of our original goal, the momentum shift was palpable, and it was an incredible feeling shared by many of us when we realized that hey, we might actually be able to do this thing. Then management hired four new people all at once and drastically changed the math. Even more frustrating, it didn't even seem to be in response to them getting wind of our efforts, but rather just a company-wide effort to hire up and slash hours during the busiest time of the year, with numerous stores across the country reporting similar patterns, regardless of whether they were unionized or not. They also shut down another unionized store in our area, in a clear act of retaliation against the union, which I thought was sure to scare off some of our more nervous undecided workers.
Demoralized but unwilling to give up, I scheduled one more meeting with the local reps and pressed hard to get as many new faces on it as I possibly could, and an hour of getting to talk face to face with folks who had been where we'd been, standing on the precipice, and fearlessly taken the plunge, was just the push we needed to get over that fear and sway just a few more folks in our favor. Today, I approached the last new hire who I hadn't yet had a chance to ask about this stuff if they were interested in signing, and before I even brought it up I could see the light in their eyes and the smile across their face, I didn't even need to make a case for it.
With over 65% of our store now having signed union cards, we're in a good position to file our official petition for union representation. There's a lot of specific details that need to be hammered out, an official letter needs to be drafted and we need to figure out who is going to be on the actual factual Organizing Committee, but we're finally ready to take the first step. I'm nervous, but I also couldn't be more excited. I have no idea what comes next, but I know I'm going to find out.
