Portside

After workers unionized at six Nestle-owned Blue Bottle coffee shops in Massachusetts in 2024, they have been in the midst of a pitched struggle to secure a first contract for their members. Their landslide victory against the multinational corporation has been a source of optimism for the coffee industry, and the union has enjoyed broad support from their customers, other unions in Massachusetts, and even workers along the international supply chain. Now, months into bargaining, frustrations mount as the company seems determined to drag things out as long as possible.

Bringing in the Union Busters

As with past union campaigns at Nestle-owned companies, the corporation brought in Ogletree Deakins to handle the union campaign and negotiations at Blue Bottle. According to watchdog organization LaborLab, Ogletree Deakins is the nation’s “second largest management-side law firm specializing in union avoidance.” Over the past 40 years, Ogletree has played a leading role in keeping many multinational corporations operating in the US union-free—one of at least four major union avoidance law firms that have taken their union-busting tactics into an international arena in recent years.

Workers at Blue Bottle understand the stakes as they continue to push for their demands at the bargaining table, and have been frustrated by the company’s attempts to drag bargaining out. “[It’s] certainly frustrating,” said Alex Pine, vice president of Blue Bottle Independent Union (BBIU). “I think that their entire bargaining strategy, and certainly Ogletree Deakins’s, is to delay bargaining to demoralize membership.”

Despite these frustrations, bargaining continues. In the last bargaining session, held on Feb. 21, the union secured tentative agreements for a number of their noneconomic proposals, but have seen no movement on key economic issues, including wages and holidays. The union faces an uphill battle in continuing to secure neutral meeting places—of which there are precious few. They have been able to meet in city hall locations, which are free to use, but scheduling difficulties at Cambridge City Hall have delayed bargaining even further. The company has repeatedly pushed to meet in conference halls, but the union is unable to afford the associated costs with renting those spaces. Other alternatives for bargaining, including Zoom, have been roundly rejected by the company. “The company certainly could afford to cover the cost of a bargaining space, they just don’t want to,” Pine said in an email. “They understand that the more time we have to spend looking for a location to meet means less time to organize.”

The union’s demands form a comprehensive package that would vastly improve the conditions that their baristas and other staff labor under. Chief among those demands are wages that are comparable with the cost of living in Massachusetts, democratic control in the workplace, and protection from harassment. To that end, they have asked for $30 an hour for their baristas, which would meet the minimum threshold for the high cost of living in the Boston area, as well as fairer scheduling, better PTO and holiday schedules, a more comprehensive healthcare plan, and the ability to accrue sick time for their employees. 

Perhaps more important, they have asked for a “just cause” clause to be included in their contract, which would restrict management from issuing what the union alleges are retaliatory write-ups. Since the union took their campaign public last year, multiple workers have been terminated without recourse–something that the union is working diligently to fix. Additionally, the union alleges that the company continues to create a hostile work environment for its employees. 

In January, the union staged a walkout in protest of the closing of their Prudential Center location without guaranteeing hours or a tip differential to workers that needed to be transferred to other locations. In a Jan. 25 statement, BBIU noted that they had filed 16 unfair labor practice complaints against the company, saying saying that Blue Bottle “engaged in union busting by writing up members for petty infractions, cutting hours of vocal supporters, unilaterally changing store operating hours without bargaining with the union, and more. In another unforced error by management, in September Blue Bottle fired union organizer Remy Roskin without any prior discipline. Even with the company agreeing to bargain over Roskin’s termination, workers say that Blue Bottle has unnecessarily strained the relationship between management and employees.”

Taking on the megacorp

Just as with union campaigns at Starbucks, Amazon, and other multinational corporations, the workers of BBIU have no illusions about the monumental task ahead of them. A megacorporation like Nestle, which posted profits of over $10 billion in 2024 and projected continued growth in its coffee portfolio for the foreseeable future, seems to tower like Goliath over the organizing efforts of its coffee shops in Massachusetts. Against these odds, BBIU remains committed to fighting for better conditions in their workplaces, no matter how incremental it may seem.

“It feels really good. I’ll tell people [at school] like, ‘Oh, I’m in a union [organizing] against a company owned by Nestle,’ and they’re immediately like, ‘hell yeah.’ The fact that we’ve already, in a very real sense, won so much, like we had this landslide union victory,” said Abby Sato, barista and BBIU organizer. “Even though at the table it doesn’t feel like these huge wins in the larger schemes of things, we are kind of tipping the scale, so it does feel really good, and it does feel like when we come together, we can make real change,” they added.

This sense of victory has helped bargaining committee members stay positive, even as the company drags things out. “This is the thing that gets me kind of excited when thinking about what we’re up against is all of the possibilities that exist,” Pine said. Since the union won their election, members of BBIU have been in contact with members of Sinaltrainal in Colombia, the union representing coffee workers farther down the supply chain. Workers in Colombia have been in a nearly year-long labor dispute with Nestle over mass layoffs–including of sick employees. Last month, bargaining sessions were meant to begin, but have since been suspended. 

For Pine, the regular messages of international solidarity from their union siblings along the supply chain have had a buoying effect. “Although the conditions of our workplaces are very different, it means a lot to me that we’re able to send messages of support to each other, talk about issues that we have with the company, and to have that kind of shared sense of international solidarity,” Pine said. That solidarity has given hope to Pine that they and their fellow workers can join a global movement to organize Nestle. “I think that there is a very real chance that we can begin to organize across the supply chain.”

For now, members are working on keeping morale up as bargaining stretches into yet another month. The union has worked hard to build up a strong union culture within their bargaining unit by continuing to hold social events and other gatherings. Pine believes that in the absence of any really meaningful social institutions or third spaces, the union is a source of community and shared power for their membership and supporters. “Even completely new members that don’t really understand what a union is already have positive feelings about it, because they understand that this can be a source or a space of a different way of life, really,” Pine said. “This is something collectively focused that gives people a sense of autonomy in their lives.”

Mel Buer is a staff reporter for The Real News Network, covering U.S. politics, labor, and movements and the host of The Real News Network Podcast. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, and others. Prior to joining TRNN, she worked as a freelance reporter covering Midwest labor struggles, including reporting on the 2021 Kellogg's strike and the 2022 railroad workers struggle. In the past she has reported extensively on Midwest protests and movements during the 2020 uprising and is currently researching and writing a book on radical media for Or Books. Follow her on Twitter or send her a message at mel@therealnews.com.

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