Highwire Coffee in Oakland, Calif., June 3, 2026.
Andrew Chamings/SFGATE
For the past several months, Highwire Coffee Roasters, a local coffee chain with eight East Bay locations, has been in turmoil.
Its CEO, Jeff Weinstein, who had been with the company for about a year, left Highwire May 29, an internal email obtained by SFGATE shows, and the manager and supervisor at the Rockridge location abruptly quit, according to an Instagram post by the Highwire Workers Union, leaving the store stressed and short-staffed. Most notably, in early March, the company suddenly shut down one of its most high-profile locations in Montclair, which reopened on May 29, according to SFGATE reporters who visited the location.
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Though Weinstein told employees that the company shut down the store because it didn’t have a manager, it happened to close the same day union members asked to receive a response to their concerns of “harassment, transphobia, favoritism, and retaliation,” the union posted March 3.
According to a timeline posted by the union, employees previously made a list of demands to the company, asking them to address serious complaints of discrimination and harassment that have allegedly been ignored. Union members asked for a response by 5 p.m. on March 2 — but executives shut down the Montclair location and laid off all its workers instead, Scott Schulman, a Highwire production lead, told SFGATE on June 4. That same day in March, couriers showed up at baristas’ houses with their final paychecks, he continued.
Then, on March 11, Highwire released a statement on Instagram about the store’s abrupt closure, attributing it to “isolated operational issues.” The statement also said all Montclair employees were offered transfers to other locations; documents from the union say that baristas weren’t contacted about it until a week after the layoffs.
Even though the Montclair location reopened on May 29, staffing issues, as well as allegations of harmful working environments, still loom over the company, especially at the Rockridge location.
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The May 29 post by the union saying Rockridge’s store manager and supervisor quit without notice, for instance, said that left the store without leadership for over two weeks. “This has created incredible distress on workers and created a hostile working environment,” the union post said.
But when the company finally brought in a new manager at the Rockridge location, the post continued, employees said they engaged in harmful, “unprofessional behavior.” On May 25, workers demanded that this manager be removed. As a result of the staffing chaos, the store briefly closed for a few hours last week, but the manager is still with the company, Schulman told SFGATE.
After Highwire brought in a third party to investigate workers’ claims of harassment and retaliation at the company, Highwire leadership said that they went through the subsequent 63-page report and found the allegations to be unsubstantiated, an email from the company shows.
Despite SFGATE emailing and calling multiple times, Highwire representatives did not respond to a request for more information by the time of publication.
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While Highwire says it’s actively working to reach an agreement with the union, bargaining sessions have been canceled at the last minute, the union said on social media, describing it as a pattern.
“We’re bargaining in good faith,” a May 27 post by the union said. “The company should too.”
Overall, the workers say they take pride in their work, and want to create an environment that values transparency and mutual respect, a statement from the union reads.
“If you ask our CEO Jeff Weinstein what’s really driving the growth at Highwire, it comes back to people: our baristas, our customers, and the East Bay neighborhoods we’ve called home since 2011,” Highwire wrote on LinkedIn.
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Schulman said to SFGATE that this community-oriented messaging only works through practice, and trying to quickly expand while bargaining is “the whole reason we’re in this f–king mess.” Weinstein did not respond to SFGATE’s request for comment by the time of publication.
On June 5, however, Highwire representatives finally met with the union to negotiate, Schulman said, and he said bargaining is going smoothly so far.
“I never wanted any of the stores to shut down,” Schulman told SFGATE. “I never wanted financial pain for the owners or the company. All I wanted was fair pay, fair treatment, and a safe working environment.”
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