March bargaining update
Hello BBIU baristas!
This past Wednesday, the bargaining committee wrapped up another intensive session of negotiations with the company. We were unfortunately unable to agree to reach any tentative agreements with the company.
TLDR — Bargaining takeaways:
We were unable to reach any tentative agreements due to the company’s narrow and obsessive focus on including security cameras within the current round of negotiations.
As we’ve discussed in general membership meetings, we won’t accept any package on cameras that does not also include our proposal on discipline and just cause.
The company has not yet agreed to our proposal on protection from customer harassment. They claim that we’re “too vague” and that they want “flexibility” in how they set policy regarding customer behavior. Translation: they don’t want baristas to have complete discretion in whether to kick out abusive customers or to step off the floor if a customer is harassing us.
As always, our ability to make dramatic changes in our working conditions will come from our solidarity with our coworkers and taking action on the shop floor. Progress at the bargaining table is a reflection of who has power – us, or the bosses.
Going into the session, we felt that we were fairly close to a tentative agreement on anti-discrimination, bulletin boards, café leadership, and creating a mechanism for baristas to suggest music for café playlists. This is reflected both in the company’s and our initial package proposals.
We were confident that we were going to be able to enter tentative agreement on these issues and move on to presenting a new package proposal to discuss with the company.
Our priorities: Barista safety, dignity, and democracy
Blue Bottle’s priority: cameras!
Bafflingly, the company felt the sudden and urgent need to include their proposal on the installation of security cameras within their next counter. Not only has Blue Bottle been slow to respond to our requests for information around their desire to install cameras including who would have access to footage and technical specifications of cameras, but when presented with similar questions during the bargaining session they did not have any prepared answer for us. Before we were able to review it with rank-and-filers during a general meeting, they did provide us with their proposed placement of cameras (found here).
So not only did the company make a dramatic change to their package, but they did not even seem prepared to discuss the topic! They told us that they felt it was fair to include the installation of cameras in the current package, since the company would be agreeing to give us a bulletin board to post union flyers.
It's obviously an absurd trade that they’re proposing. Cameras represent bosses' desire for endless knowledge and control of our working days. Bosses feel so entitled to dictatorial control of our workplaces that minor concessions to our vision of a democratic workplace where baristas can exert autonomy over their work threatens them.
The company likewise expressed eagerness to voluntarily cooperate with law enforcement by providing camera footage to them in the absence of a legal warrant or subpoena. Since our union has many baristas who are immigrants, on visas, or who participate in protests, we find it unacceptable to volunteer any information about them to law enforcement, especially in today’s political climate.
Rather than give an explicit play-by-play of the proposals we exchanged, you can find them at the bottom of this page. Some proposals which saw significant movement were for the ability for baristas to request unpaid time off and playlist submissions for Boston baristas. We are still discussing our proposal on protection from customer harassment.
As always, what ultimately will win us our core demands will be solidarity with each other and our ability to claim ownership of our workplace. We can win a living wage, consistent schedules, and democracy in the workplace if we are able and willing to take action over these issues!
You can help us win our core demands by:
Attending the April General membership meeting (tomorrow night @ 8:30pm EST over zoom)
Paying voluntary dues (which help pay for things like this website, union-sponsored events, and our strike fund)
