(NEW YORK CITY) - Among the various retail and service workplaces where Employees have formed Unions since 2021, Blank Street Coffee - the private equity-backed coffee chain that first opened in Brooklyn in 2020, is one of the only ones where Workers have secured a Union contract.

Workers at more than a dozen Blank Street locations in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan started organizing with Local 1500 of the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) in the Summer of 2022 - by March of last year, more than two dozen stores with over 100 workers had voted to Unionize.

By late last month, Workers at 17 of those locations - several storefronts closed in the interim - unanimously ratified a first Collective Bargaining Agreement, winning annual 50-cent raises, paid time off and a grievance procedure.

The workers are now hoping those contract wins become the baseline for Blank Street and Coffee Shop Workers across the Northeast.

"This is about raising standards,” Tuscany Foussard, a Blank Street Barista on the Union’s Bargaining Committee said in an interview. “A ($23) an hour guaranteed wage for Coffee Workers reflects current times with inflation and rising cost of living.  (The contract) gives you hope and it's a really good standard.”

Sequoya Waring, another Barista on the Bargaining Committee, said Blank Street Union Members are in contact with Baristas at Starbucks, Partners Coffee and Blue Bottle Coffee - and that Workers there are applying lessons from the Blank Street Workers’ contract campaign.

“There’s a bit of a domino effect going on,” Waring said. “It seems Like Barista Unions in the Northeast are starting to roll out.”

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: At Blank Street Coffee, espresso-pullers seek to set union baseline - The Chief (thechiefleader.com)