A donation to The Oaklandside goes beyond the newsroom.<\/strong> We amplify community voices, share the power of real information, and investigate systems, not just symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donate<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Workers at three Peet\u2019s Coffee locations in Berkeley and Oakland have started a union drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The workers, who are hoping to join the Industrial Workers of the World IU 460, filed three petitions for union elections with the National Labor Relations Board on Friday. The organizing workers at the Southside Berkeley, Temescal and Piedmont locations said in a press release that they have experienced \u201cwage stagnation, understaffing, and unsafe working conditions,\u201d and hope unionizing will help them secure improved working conditions, better pay and benefits and more worker autonomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary O\u2019Connell, a spokesperson for Peet\u2019s Coffee, wrote in an email Monday that the store plans to follow the process outlined by the National Labor Relations Act. \u201cWe will adhere to the process at every step of the way and will be listening directly to the concerns of our employees, as we always have,\u201d O\u2019Connell wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peet\u2019s Coffee\u2019s first store opened in the 1960s in North Berkeley (the shop is still open), and there are now 331 locations in the U.S., with most in California. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have worked at Peet\u2019s for nearly six years, and my coworkers and I have had to constantly work through unsafe conditions, such as biohazards, [as well as] alongside vermin and physical and verbal attacks from the public,\u201d said Kimberly Solis, a barista at the Telegraph and Dwight location in Southside Berkeley, in a press release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Solis cited deteriorating working conditions as the reason turnover rates at the store have been higher than the usual two to three per month. \u201cThe climate at this store has been so toxic that in the last month we\u2019ve had six people quit,\u201d Solis told Berkeleyside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Solis and the other organizing workers are part of a nationwide barista-led labor movement<\/a>. In January, the North Davis Peet\u2019s became the first Peet\u2019s store to unionize, voting 14-1 to join the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, the San Francisco Chronicle reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The downtown Berkeley location of Starbucks voted to unionize in August 2022<\/a>, joining Starbucks Workers United<\/a>. More than 200 Starbucks locations have filed petitions for union elections as of May 2022, according<\/a> to the Los Angeles Times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think the whole coffee industry needs some unity,\u201d said Liz Rico, a team member at the Berkeley store, who noted she\u2019s encountered similar challenges at her previous coffee store jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Workers involved in the organizing efforts said cost-cutting measures at Peet\u2019s have turned what once was a \u201csmall-batch specialty roaster\u201d into one that more closely resembles a multinational coffee chain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Alfred Peet, a German labor camp survivor whose family used to run a coffee roasting business in the Netherlands, opened Peet\u2019s Coffee\u2019s first North Berkeley location in 1966, he sparked a craft coffee movement \u2014 one that Starbucks imitated (with Alfred Peet\u2019s permission) five years later when it opened its first coffee shop in Seattle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWithin a year and a half [of Peet\u2019s Coffee\u2019s opening], lines stretched around the corner,\u201d author Mark Pendergrast wrote in his coffee history book Uncommon Grounds<\/em>. \u201cPeet\u2019s was hip. Peet\u2019s was groovy. Peet\u2019s was the place for hippies to hang out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Berkeleyside Managing Editor Zac Farber contributed reporting to this story.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Iris Kwok covers the environment for Berkeleyside through a partnership with Report for America. A former music journalist, her work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, San Francisco Examiner and San Francisco Classical Voice, among other publications. In her spare time, you can find her petting street cats or playing cello. She joined Berkeleyside in June 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Workers at the Southside Berkeley, Temescal and Piedmont locations filed petitions for union elections on Friday. by\u00a0Iris Kwok June 12, 2023 (oaklandside.org) A donation to The Oaklandside goes beyond the newsroom. We amplify community voices, share the power of real information, and investigate systems, not just symptoms. Donate Workers at three… Continue reading ![\"Two](\"https:\/\/newspack-berkeleyside-cityside.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Peets.png\")
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IRIS KWOK<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n