Lauren Gamble, member of the Independent Socialist Group, reflects on winning a first contract at Coffee by Design (CBD), a small coffee chain in Portland, ME. She served on the bargaining committee for Union by Design, which now represents CBD baristas and retail staff. Union by Design is affiliated to the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA).
What are the contract highlights?
Wages, scheduling, and job protections were the big issues that led to our union drive. We did win higher wages and new longevity raises. Over the two years I’ve worked at CBD, I only received a single raise, including when promoted to shift lead. Consistent scheduling policy makes it clear what is expected of management and workers. Basic union job protections include no at-will firing and a clearly-defined disciplinary system. We didn’t win urgent shift cover pay and want to keep fighting for it in the next contract. But winning this first contract, not just the election, makes our union real.
What was your experience on the negotiating team?
It was a huge eye opener. Our union rep and the company PR released a statement about the final contract, painting negotiations as friendly and cooperative. But that was not what happened in the room. Management was very insulting to the workers yet, while negotiations are never nice, the union rep pressured us to “play nice.”
The company fought us over the urgent shift cover pay, claiming there was no way to budget for it while managing to budget for yearly visits to coffee farms in Ethiopia and Costa Rica. We have to care about their finances but they don’t care about ours. They insinuated that workers would abuse the provision. I tried to give them a reality check—this is our livelihood. I have to pay my bills, my rent, put food on the table. I’m not abruptly calling off solely to get my co-worker another $2/hr.
We had to push back repeatedly against our union rep to take a firm stand in negotiations. How could we win a good contract if the union rep submitted a wage offer to the company that the bargaining team wouldn’t even vote for? Unions have the capacity to lead the charge, be militant, and fight for workers, which is why organizing is so important. However, sometimes the leadership in long-established unions, like LiUNA, can be bureaucratic and too friendly with business owners. I am fiercely pro-union because that’s the way to organize working-class people and connect our struggles. But we also must keep in mind that it’s still up to us workers to decide what is right for us.
What is important to know going into negotiations?
I saw in action how crucial open negotiations are. As a socialist, I was reading and discussing the lessons of different strategies in past union fights. But our union rep agreed to closed bargaining and the rest of the union bargaining team wasn’t able to reverse that. We received “ground rules” for negotiations from the company lawyer claiming we couldn’t talk about negotiations outside of the room (i.e., the bargaining team, management/owners, union rep). Management tried to divide the union by manufacturing confusion and telling bargaining team members that we couldn’t share our updates with other members.
The need for transparency with the members became clear during negotiations about urgent shift coverage. We tried to propose a policy to address consistent understaffing. Workers in the roastery (production side) with experience as baristas (retail side) were regularly used to fill staffing shortages. Our proposal required management to ask every worker on the retail side before asking production to cover. Always needing coverage means they really need to hire more baristas.
During these negotiations, one barista got COVID. A barista on the bargaining team needed—and volunteered for—the shift since they were already working that day, but management made a roastery worker come in instead. Management then leaked our proposal about filling staffing shortages, misrepresenting it by saying that production workers would never be allowed to cover retail shifts again. Our members approached the bargaining team and asked for clarification. Seeing that management is more than willing to violate “closed” negotiations, we began giving our members every update.
But we should open negotiations even further, so any union member can attend bargaining sessions to see for themselves, and mobilize our members to put extra pressure on management. I stressed this point when talking with organizers at Smalls, another local cafe that’s unionizing. It’s a bad idea to let management decide if we can talk about negotiations. If I can talk with other recently organized, organizing, or interested baristas, I try to share some of my experiences in the hopes that other workers don’t make the same mistakes and can win a better contract.
Independent Socialist Group 