Steph Achter watched with delight as the wave of worker organizing at Starbucks took flight this year.
“I think that we are all on a similar page. It’s just that we need to be like enough is enough!” Achter is a career barista and led a union campaign in a independently-owned cafA(c), in Milwaukee, in 2020. It’s exciting. I am pumped.”
Achter is part a barista-led labor movement which has grown at a remarkable pace. Union elections are on the rise in coffee shops, with 70% more votes than last year. Starbucks accounts for more growth than any other company, but small business baristas are also unionizing, some well before Starbucks.
Consider the type of workers that coffee shops attract to understand how cafA(c),s became hot spots for organizing. Your latte maker is likely to be young, educated, and progressive in their politics. They are part of a new generation of workers that have experienced massive upheaval in the early years of their lives, including economic disruption, social unrest and a labor market which has empowered workers to demand more.
Kellie Lutz did not have the intention of organizing when she applied for a job at Stone Creek Coffee, Milwaukee. She needed a part time job to move out of her parents’ home and rent a place she can call her own.
This was more than one year before the pandemic. Lutz was surrounded by young, energetic people who were eager to help others. She was fascinated by environmental work for a while. She was also interested in student government. She was then drawn to the Fight for $15, a movement that demands $15 an hour from fast-food workers.
Lutz earned $8.25 per hour plus tips as a Barista. It hit her: You don’t have to travel far to be an activist.
She says, “I realized it could just happen in my workplace.”
Stone Creek Coffee has 12 locations around Milwaukee and Chicago. The specialty coffee chain had been founded in the 1990s by a former barista-turned-entrepreneur who sought to do well by his employees and his community.
Lutz still felt something was wrong. Lutz was furious that her hourly wage could not buy two lattes.
It wasn’t about the money. She couldn’t even find the time to use the bathroom on the job for days. It was shocking to discover that she was an “at-will” employee under Wisconsin labor law. This means she could be fired for whatever reason.
She was struck by the struggle of the working class and the inequitable distribution of wealth that Sen. Bernie Sanders had criticized.
She came across a post on Facebook from the local Teamsters branch inviting anyone who is interested in organizing to get in touch.
Lutz knew very little about unions but her grandfathers were members. One of them had been secretary to an electric workers union. One had been a part of a pilot strike. They had complained for years about the decline in power of unions and workers losing their voice.
Lutz finally felt that she understood the meaning of all their years-long conversations. She was ready to take action and she was fired up.
She recalls thinking, “We have to do something to make peoples lives better aEUR” Not only hers but all of us.”
Lutz convinced other Stone Creek baristas to join her cause. She successfully petitioned for union elections by working with Teamsters Local 344. Stone Creek’s leadership, however, refused to allow her to petition for a union election. They claimed that unionizing was not the right way to resolve grievances. The union was rejected by enough staff members to prevail. Lutz was discouraged and quit her job as a barista to pursue activism.
She had also planted a seed.
The same union was given another chance to form a smaller coffee business, aEUR”, a single cafeteria(c) located near Stone Creek’s headquarters a year later. Steph Achter was the leader.
Part-time baristas often see their job in a coffee shop as a step towards something more. There are those who wish to make it a full-time career, or even a lifetime.
Achter is one.
Achter, a 17-year veteran of various coffee shops in Green Bay and Milwaukee, has discovered that there are always the same challenges everywhere.
“Emotional labor is very high. The schedules can be very inconsistent. It can be difficult to make time for yourself, or plan your life beyond work,” Achter says. He believes unions are the key to achieving change.
The pandemic was a turning moment.
Achter worked at the Milwaukee cafA(c), then called Wonderstate, in 2020. After a reorganization of ownership, the cafA(c), was renamed to Likewise.
COVID only made the already existing problems worse. The workers felt excluded from making decisions that could have a significant impact on their safety and health. They were the ones who were most at risk.
Achter and a colleague decided to do something. They sought to be inspired by other Milwaukee baristas who had organized and asked for raises as well as more control over the business’s management.
Faced with pandemic losses and a cafA(c), owners said no.
Achter was not discouraged and got in touch the Teamsters who had previous experience in organizing coffee workers. It was a smaller campaign with six workers in the bargaining unit. This time, the union won.
Destiny DeVooght is one of three workers who voted in union. “I believe the pandemic created the perfect conditions for worker solidarity, although it was terrible.”
The bonds that were there before the COVID stress collectively strengthened them.
Baristas are close-knit and spend their time working together. DeVooght also says that they are a liberal bunch. They are passionate about many of their common causes, including workers rights.
Baristas are more educated than other workers in the service industry, such as fast food workers. Sometimes, even more education is required. Rhodes Scholar is the lead organizer for Starbucks’ union campaign.
They see activism as a way of making a difference. Most baristas do not see their jobs as something that they will do for the rest of their lives, unlike those who worked in unions in years past. They say that they are fighting for their own interests as well as those of others by joining unions. This is a position even Achter, a career barista, has taken.
Union membership comes with dues. Achter pays about $30 per month in dues.
Achter says it’s worth it. The union secured a 50c annual raise for workers and protection against being fired without cause.
The veteran barista said that being in a union gives her job security for the first time. I can make this a long-lasting career.”
We will see how much more the Teamsters, or any other union, can offer coffeehouse workers. The record-breaking demand for workers will soon be ended by an economic slowdown.
All workers who are aEUR baristas include aEUR may have less power than they thought, regardless of whether or not they’re unionized.
