May Bargaining Update
Baristas at the Chestnut Hill location after walking out on May 9.
Hello BBIU Baristas,
On May 14, our union’s bargaining committee once again met with Blue Bottle's management to continue negotiations for a first contract. Our bargaining session followed an impressive walkout that we conducted across 5 out of 6 Boston area locations over Blue Bottle’s illegal and bad faith decision to declare impasse on cameras. Last week, our union also conducted a walkout at the Chestnut Hill location over the termination of a barista without providing our union notice or the opportunity to bargain over the discipline, as Blue Bottle previously has. We also have a gofundme set up for Bella. Please consider giving what you can.
As always, all of the proposals that have been exchanged are linked at the bottom of this post.
Here are the quick updates:
The company made it clear that they plan to continue with their illegal installation of cameras. Despite the fact that the company agreed that cameras were a mandatory subject of bargaining and that we had been negotiating cameras as part of our contract, they felt they “weren’t getting anywhere” with that. The company’s decision to implement cameras once again shows flagrant disregard for their baristas and for the collective bargaining process.
Our walkouts did succeed in getting the company to offer a proposal which featured “Just Cause” protections from discipline! We did not reach an agreement on the language for that proposal yet, but we expect to at a future session.
Our union is close to an agreement on a package which would:
Prohibit discrimination and harassment in the workplace
Provide employees a way to submit music to be considered for café playlists
Define the role of café leadership
Allow the union to install bulletin boards in the BOH of cafés.
We did not reach an agreement on this package because we felt that our union should be able to implement bulletin boards with immediate effect. Although both sides agreed that it would be beneficial for the union to have a designated spot to post notices and flyers, Blue Bottle did not want to concede on this minor issue.
Below we discuss some of Blue Bottle’s other proposals and how our walkouts got them to offer us “just cause” for discipline.
Discussion at the table
The company’s initial set of proposals did include “just cause” for discipline. One of the core issues at the heart of our two previous walkouts was that baristas do not feel like the company should be able to arbitrarily and unevenly enforce discipline. That Blue Bottle responded to our walkouts with a proposal for just cause once again speaks to our collective power as a union to win concessions from the company.
REMEMBER: Only after we took decisive collective action did Blue Bottle offer us a concession. Our collective solidarity is what has and will continue to move Blue Bottle to concede to our demands.
At the same time, we were confused by what was included in the package along with just cause, a so-called “management’s rights” proposal. The company claimed that they felt that offering baristas “just cause” protections from discipline was a fair trade for endowing in management all of the power that they had prior to us unionizing. While the company’s full package proposal is linked at the bottom of this post, we feel it’s necessary to quote it in its entirety here:
“It is agreed that the management of the Company’s business and the direction of its working forces are vested exclusively in the Company and that the Company retains all rights that it had before the execution of this Agreement, unless a right is clearly, specifically and expressly contracted away in this Agreement. These retained rights include, but are not limited to the following examples: the right to direct and supervise the work of its Employees, the right to hire, promote, demote, transfer, and to discipline or discharge Employees, the right to create or eliminate jobs and to determine wage rates, the right to determine training requirements and provide training to Employees, the right to set uniform and attire standards, the right to plan, direct and control operations, the right to determine products to be sold, services, and products to be procured, used and/or distributed, the right to determine the type and quantity of machines, equipment, location of cafes, the right to determine the amount and quality of work needed, the right to determine schedules of cafe operation, the right to determine the number of Employees needed, the right to determine the work schedules of Employees, the right to lay off Employees or relieve Employees from work because of lack of work, the right to discontinue or introduce new or improved methods, operating practices, and cafes, the right to change the content of jobs and the qualifications for such jobs, the right to establish, modify, and enforce work rules of conduct or policies and discipline Employees who violate such rules or policies, the right to establish, modify and enforce an attendance policy and discipline Employees who violate an attendance policy, the right to outsource, subcontract work and/or use temporary Employees, the right to require physical examinations (including drug tests), the right to install interior or exterior cameras, the right to search lockers and/or any containers or packages, the right to transfer work into or out of the cafe, the right to downsize or close the cafe, and the right to exercise all the usual, customary, and inherent rights, functions, and authority of management, except as specifically limited by this Agreement. The Company may exercise all of these rights without bargaining the right to do so. Wherever this Agreement vests in the Company “discretion,” this discretion may be exercised by the Company without bargaining the right to take the indicated action.
The Company shall have the right to adopt and place into effect reasonable rules of conduct in the operation of its business.
Exigent circumstances may warrant deviating from provisions of this Agreement, including emergency and business contingency situations.”
In short, the company presented us with a proposal which effectively would neuter our union and our rights as workers to bargain changes in our wages, hours and working conditions. Our power as a union threatens their vision of their vision for dictatorial control of the workplace.
Our bargaining committee felt that not only was this proposal overbroad and antithetical to our values as a union, but it also makes no sense to negotiate a so-called “management’s rights” proposal before we’ve reached tentative agreement on most other parts of the contract. Doing so would effectively give management carte blanche power to ignore anything else that we might end up negotiating as part of the contract.
In response, our union offered Blue Bottle another draft collective bargaining agreement, with edits to language to reflect the progress that we’ve made so far. Blue Bottle declined to agree to that contract and so we returned to negotiating the proposals which had been on the table back in March.
Both sides are in agreement about the language of the proposals on the table. However, Blue Bottle does not want the union to have the ability to immediately put up bulletin boards in the back of house of cafés. Since the company continues to illegally tear down flyers in the back of house, we felt that it would be fair to allow our union a designated place for union postings. Bulletin boards would allow us to effectively put up notices about union events, bargaining updates, and your rights in the workplace. Further, it seems hypocritical to us that Blue Bottle feels empowered to illegally and unilaterally install cameras in the cafés, but would not agree for bulletin boards to take immediate effect.
In a demonstration of good faith, our union offered to withdraw the allegations of management tearing down union posters and flyers from one of our unfair labor practice charges if the company would allow us to install bulletin boards with immediate effect. The company told us that we would have a response before the next bargaining session in June.
What next?
We were able to replace the wages of everyone who walked out last week because of extensive fundraising and members paying voluntary dues. If you want to enable our union to take further collective action, please consider becoming a dues paying member.
Proposals exchanged
Company proposal 8 (includes just cause and so-called “management’s rights”)
