Baristas at Peet’s Coffee at 1441 NE Broadway in Portland voted 11-0 to join the Portland Branch of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in an Oct. 23-24 election held at the cafe. It’s the fifth win in the IWW’s Peet’s Labor Union effort, after four coffee shops unionized in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Organizing started brewing in February after managers announced unpopular new policies, including that Peet’s will no longer offer annual wage increases aside from the state minimum wage.
Peet’s Coffee started in California in 1966 before growing to a national chain with 287 locations in the United States, mostly on the West Coast (227 in California). Within the past two years Peet’s has rapidly expanded internationally, opening over 200 stores in China. While the Northeast Broadway location is the only corporate owned Peet’s coffee shop in the city of Portland, there are five more locations in the surrounding suburbs.
Peet’s workers in the Bay Area have yet to secure a first contract.
“It feels good to stand up and have a voice in the face of disrespect,” said barista Cole Franko. “We deserve better wages, reasonable schedules, and respect as the valuable members of our community that we are.”
