April 2026 Bargaining Update
Hello BBIU Baristas,
On April 22 and 23, our bargaining team met with the company’s representatives to negotiate our first contract. Proposals exchanged between the company and the union are linked at the bottom of the page.
Two weeks before this session, our East Bay chapter held a successful one-day strike in response to the termination of an elected union officer, Camden Castillo. Blue Bottle has not yet reinstated any fired union organizers. We will not tolerate unfair labor practices and are prepared to take action over them. Taking action is the only way we can demonstrate that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us!
April Takeaways:
Blue Bottle continues to demand agreement to their ridiculous “Management Rights” proposal as a precondition to further negotiations. This proposal would let the company make unilateral changes to nearly all terms of employment without any union input. We’ve repeatedly told them this is bad-faith bargaining and that the National Labor Relations Board has set precedent on this.
We successfully prevented the company from implementing a speedup at the Pru location. (You can read our union’s proposal for guardrails on the company change here.)
Based on feedback from our March 29 General Membership meeting, we rejected Blue Bottle’s demand for a “No Strikes” clause.
After our union made more movement on “Management Rights,” Blue Bottle made minor concessions this month. The company provided the union with proposals which would:
Allow the company to search employee lockers.
Provide protections from our jobs being subcontracted.
Provide protections from layoffs by allowing baristas to transfer between unionized cafes.
The company continues to engage in surface bargaining, but fails to address the concerns of their workforce: wages, work schedules, and protections from harassment.
Our Vision: A Democratic Workplace
Blue Bottle’s Vision: Control Over Compromise
This month, our union submitted a package proposal that offered to drop two items the company had previously called significant: union dues checkoff and a grievance procedure.
After the company touted these as major “gives” to the union back in March, our bargaining team came prepared to show them exactly where our priorities lie. We’re not here to win bureaucratic concessions. We’re here to guarantee livable wages, consistent schedules, and protection from customer harassment. In short: a democratic workplace.
It seems that Blue Bottle wants the dues checkoff and grievance procedure more than our bargaining team does. Limiting our ability to resolve disputes to a bureaucratic process is one way that they can limit our ability to take action on the shop floor.
If Blue Bottle wants dues checkoff and grievance procedure, they can earn them by bargaining seriously on what actually matters to our members.
Currently, roughly 20% of BBIU members voluntarily pay anywhere between $2 – $15 to fund our union. Doing so ensures that our union can take strike action, cover administrative costs (such as website hosting), and allocate funds to union kickbacks! For a further breakdown of our finances from 2025, click here.
Get involved!
Become a dues-paying member to strengthen our strike fund! Contributions start at $2 per month, your contribution helps us to build our strike threat.
Attend the new member orientation on May 5 at 8:30 pm EST. Learn about your rights, the status of negotiations, and ways to get involved. If you’ve been looking for ways to get more involved with the union, THIS is the meeting for you.
Take our latest survey! Check your email.
