(WILLIAMSVILLE, NEW YORK) – Workers United for Upstate New York Manager Gary Bonadonna, Jr. minced no words when asked by WNYLaborToday.com why the management of SPoT Coffee - which allowed their Workers in Rochester to Unionize, but is trying to stop a Unionization Drive here in Buffalo, would take such opposite stances - and, in the process, fire three Employees who were at the forefront of the local effort: “They started a war here.”

As such, representatives from Workers United and those three fired SPoT Coffee Employees were slated to be joined by Union Representatives from across the Buffalo area early Tuesday morning (July 3rd) during a leafletting effort (Pictured Above/WNYLaborToday.com Photo) to be held outside the company’s Suburban Williamsville location on Main Street (pictured above) in order to call attention to what management has done to its fired Workers and how they are attempting to thwart their Employees from Going Union.

“We ‘can’t let this stand and we will get (the three Workers) reinstated.’  They have a ‘legal right to organize,’” Bonadonna pledged, “but ‘what we also want is to ensure a fair (Unionization) process.’  ‘It should be up to the Workers (whether or not they want Union Representation)’.  ‘They should be the ones to decide.’”

The three Workers were fired only two weeks into the Buffalo Union Organizing Campaign, Bonadonna told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper, which has made some SPoT Coffee Workers “very angry” and others “scared to death now” due to the fact management “wanted this ongoing campaign ‘over even before it began.’”

“I ‘really don’t know what the difference is,’” Bonadonna replied to WNYLaborToday.com when asked what was with the Rochester versus Buffalo scenario. 

“Their top people ‘are the same.’  We ‘didn’t experience this in Rochester.’  They ‘did bring in an Anti-Union speaker at the end (in an attempt to dissuade their Employees from Unionizing), but (what’s happened in Buffalo) is the extreme.’  I guess I have ‘my own’ assumptions - ‘maybe they figured Rochester was isolated.’  ‘But all their density is in Buffalo, so maybe they thought they had better kill this thing (Union Organizing Drive),’” he said.

There was only one No vote when the dust settled in the Rochester SPoT Coffee Unionization Drive that has now created 16 new Union Workers employed at SPoT Coffee’s East Avenue location, Bonadonna said.

In fact, he added, Workers United’s Representatives and SPoT Coffee Management “got off on the right foot” after that, even being invited by management to tour the company’s headquarters and schedule their first round of contract negotiation for the end of July.

And, Anton Ayoub, the President and CEO of Valshire SPoT Incorporated, issued the following statement: “Our Employees are an integral part of everything we do.  We care highly about them.  We respect their decision to join a Union and we hope to conclude a contract with the Union that is not only beneficial to our Employees and the Company, but one that also enhances our mission to serve the community.”

In Buffalo there are “more than one hundred Workers” employed by SPoT Coffee at as many as eight area locations, Workers United Representatives said.

Like Rochester, many are Millennials, who are “so smart and caring,” said Bonadonna - “An impressive group.”

When you boil everything down to the bottom of the coffee cup, the Non-Union Buffalo SPoT Coffee Employees now want what the Rochester Unionized SPoT Coffee Workers have.

“They are being paid minimum wage ‘and certainly wages are an issue - but they want more of a say in their workplace and a voice.’  They’ve asked us: ‘How do we get a seat at the table?’  The Buffalo Workers ‘are friends with’ the Rochester Workers ‘and they asked how they were able to become’ Unionized.  ‘They wanted to learn more,’” Bonadonna told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper. 

For More On This Labor News Story, Read: SPoT Coffee Workers Unionize, Could This Inspire Other Local Workers? At https://openmicroc.com/the-new-face-of-rochesters-labor-movement/