July 25, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)
While working at Peet’s Coffee, Terri McFadden has often felt unsafe, but nothing compares to when a customer threw hot water at him and his manager. He fell and dealt with burns on the side of his face.
“It’s by far the most traumatic thing that has happened at work,” said McFadden, a shift lead at the Peet’s in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood. After the incident in March — which he reported to the company — he was only permitted to go home roughly 30 minutes early, he said. The anxiety lingers, and he fears for his safety at work.
“I don’t think any worker deserves to feel that way — stepping into what should be a safe space for them,” he said. He wants a permanent security guard at his store.
A safer workplace is one of the many demands that workers at three Bay Area Peet’s Coffee locations will consider Tuesday, July 25, as they vote on whether they want to unionize.
If a simple majority of workers votes “yes,” they’ll join the Industrial Workers of the World Industrial Union 460 (IWW IU460), which represents food and retail workers. The three stores — 2501 Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley, 5095 Telegraph Ave., #1d (Temescal) and 4050 Piedmont Ave. in Oakland — filed petitions to the National Labor Relations Board in June. The cafes would follow the Peet’s in North Davis, where employees this year voted to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1021 and made it the first Peet’s to unionize.
“I think the hope is that with these efforts of organizing ourselves, we can begin to make some improvements,” said Miguel Ochoa, who works at the Temescal cafe. “We really do enjoy working (at Peet’s).”
Among their demands, they want a standard base pay rate and cost of living adjustments; expanded benefits like better health care for part-time employees; safer workplaces; and “stringent accountability standards for management.” More broadly, workers want a voice.
“I want to see a change in the workplace environment in which workers actually have the power and a say in how the store operates, and for Peet’s and upper management to really take accountability for how they treat their workers,” said Deya Rith, another shift lead at the Temescal cafe.
In a statement, Peet’s Coffee declined to comment on specific incidents but said it is “committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment.”
“Like so many in the service sector, especially in the Bay Area, we are dealing with seismic social change,” the statement read. “Under these circumstances, we will strive to address the concerns of our employees and work together to keep Peet’s the warm, welcoming community places they always have been.”
Peet’s has 170 retail locations in California and originated in the Bay Area, with founder Alfred Peet opening his first shop in North Berkeley in 1966. Because Peet’s has deep roots in the Bay Area, other workers nearby could be inspired by the unionizing efforts of their colleagues and start their own, said Ken Jacobs, the chair of UC Berkeley’s Labor Center.
Having so many cafes in one area “makes it easier for the workers to put greater pressure on the company to come to the table and bargain,” Jacobs added.
Peet’s Coffee said its commitment to its employees won’t change, no matter the outcome of the union vote. “Our story began here in the Bay Area and we look forward to writing the next chapter together with our employees,” the statement read.
Rith decided to get involved in organizing when the North Davis location unionized. “It really started this fire and conversation because you see what’s happening at Starbucks,” Rith said. “But at Peet’s — at the time — I didn’t think it was possible.”
Since 2021, Starbucks baristas nationwide have been fighting to unionize their stores amid complaints that the corporation is union busting. In 2022, two Starbucks in Santa Cruz were the first in the state to unionize, with over 300 stores eventually voting to unionize. The work of Starbucks employees is inspiring, Rith said, and it has shown the Peet’s Labor Union how to strategize around bargaining, if they make it that far.
“When we look at Starbucks — and we look at what they’re doing and whether it’s working — you want to think about what’s going to get Peet’s attention and actually take you seriously,” she said. “And that’s really going to be the strength of the workers.”
Rith said she’s concerned about workplace safety and physical health. When the store has only three people on the floor, she finds herself multitasking to meet the demand, leading to wrist and shoulder problems. In March, Rith saw a physical therapist who advised her to take breaks when possible, but with so many duties and pressure to make drinks under three minutes, there’s often no time, she said.
“This problem could be eliminated if it wasn’t forced upon us to work as quickly as possible,” she said, “and if we were able to actually care about the craft and quality of the drinks that we’re serving.”
Workers also want more consistent and flexible scheduling. Ochoa’s haphazard schedule has made him consider trying to pick up more hours at his second job, looking for a third part-time gig or driving for Uber. “Our schedules will change week to week,” Ochoa said. “And so we’re only really allowed to plan our lives a week at a time.”
However, the scheduling system changed slightly after they filed their petition to unionize: Now, they get their schedules two to three weeks in advance. Despite some workers getting “as little as five to 10 hours per week” at Ochoa’s store, he said Peet’s has still been hiring new staff.
Peet’s said that it works “as much as possible” with employees’ schedules: “At some locations, employees may only be available on weekends or in the afternoons and their availability changes with new class schedules, other job commitments, or personal needs. We hire to fill those ever-changing gaps.”
In the Bay Area, some recent unionizing efforts outside of the coffee industry have slowed down after early momentum. After voting to unionize in 2021, workers from Tartine Bakery and Dandelion Chocolate still haven’t announced a contract.
Organizers say they haven’t been paying close attention to examples like Tartine and Dandelion, but they’re hopeful they’ll have better luck at the bargaining table if they successfully unionize. Ochoa said people from “a handful” of other Peet’s locations have already reached out to express interest in organizing. At their store, Ochoa and Rith said, colleagues are thrilled to see this happening, with Ochoa estimating that around 90% of employees at the three stores are on board with the union.
Still, Rith is nervous about the impending vote.
“I think there’s always like a level of anxiety that will come with organizing,” Rith said. “Going into (the vote), I feel pretty good and excited.”
Reach Matt Yan: Matt.Yan@sfchronicle.com
Matt Yan is the newsroom’s food and wine reporting intern. Originally from Washington, D.C., he is a senior at Northeastern University in Boston and will graduate in December with a combined degree in journalism and English. Yan most recently was a correspondent at the Boston Globe, where he wrote hundreds of breaking news stories about local crime, Taylor Swift, and everything in between. He also was the editor-in-chief of the Huntington News, Northeastern’s independent student paper, and an intern at Edible DC. Yan is thrilled to join The Chronicle and dive headfirst into the Bay Area’s food and wine scene.
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