Workers at Peet\u2019s Coffee on Telegraph Avenue and Dwight Way rallied outside their store Sunday, calling for a fair severance package and the right to transfer after learning the store will be closing this coming Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nearly 30 Peet\u2019s Coffee locations across San Francisco, Davis, San Diego and Chicago will be closing with no transfer opportunities for employees, according to Dino Solis, a barista at the Telegraph and Dwight Peet\u2019s Coffee, and a delegate from the Peet\u2019s Labor Union. Workers who have been at the company longer than six months will be given a week-long severance package, according to Peet\u2019s Union delegate and barista Hex Duncan.<\/p>\n
With 15 to 20 workers at most locations, Solis said this will mean hundreds of people losing jobs.<\/p>\n
Solis has worked as a barista at Peet\u2019s Coffee for nearly nine years and at the Telegraph and Dwight location since 2018.When they got the news that their store would be closing, they cried with their co-workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a barista has been one of the most significant things in my life,\u201d Solis said. \u201cI was talking to a regular this morning and I was like, \u2018This might be the last caramel macchiato I make for you\u2019 and I almost started crying again. I\u2019ve seen Cal students, freshmen, come in, and seen them all through graduation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peet\u2019s workers and an advisor met with Peet\u2019s Coffee lawyers and a human resources representative at the bargaining table last Thursday to fight for better severance packages and the right to transfer. They will meet again Wednesday, before their store closes on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No official store closure numbers have been released by the company, though employees have spoken to other stores to piece together which locations are closing. Peet\u2019s Coffee has provided no rationale for these closures to employees, according to Solis.<\/p>\n
Duncan said the Telegraph and Dwight closure feels like \u201cthe rug is being pulled out from under (him).\u201d He has worked at Peet\u2019s Coffee for nearly two years and said the workers at his store are \u201ctight.\u201dSolis said they\u2019ve met many of their closest friends working at the Telegraph and Dwight location.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Peet\u2019s is the staple of the street,\u201d Duncan said. \u201cWe have fed the community and served the workers. Almost all the workers, before they go into work, whether they\u2019re a part of our union or not, come here to get their coffee \u2026 Yes, there are all these other coffee shops, but it was a community here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Duncan alleged he\u2019s seen a shift in Peet\u2019s Coffee\u2019s standards and company expectations in his time working there. When he started, Duncan said Peet\u2019s Coffee required baristas to do latte art and emphasized \u201ccraft coffee,\u201d and now they serve smoothies, coffee from automatic machines and frozen food.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Peet\u2019s Coffee was acquired by Keurig Dr Pepper in an $18 billion deal last year, which has already led to internal restructuring within the company, according to Solis. The Telegraph and Dwight store is the only one of four unionized Peet\u2019s Coffee locations that will be closing.<\/p>\n
An email statement from Peet\u2019s Coffee detailed that the company has decided to close \u201ca number\u201d of locations by the end of the month.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese closures reflect a broader effort to align our business with long-term growth priorities and current market conditions,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cAs we move forward, we remain dedicated to the quality, craftsmanship, and heritage that have defined Peet\u2019s for the past 60 years, while embracing new opportunities to innovate and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because no other Berkeley or Oakland District Peet\u2019s Coffee locations are closing, as far as the union is aware, Solis and Duncan think it would be possible to offer the stores\u2019 11 workers the opportunity to transfer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Solis said if they were not given the opportunity to transfer after bargaining, they would reapply to another location.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross the company, there are a lot of workers who you\u2019ll find at different shops where they\u2019ve been forever,\u201d Solis said. \u201cThere\u2019s no respect or commitment to supporting baristas who have held it down for a long time and actually have a personal and emotional connection to the place they work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peet\u2019s Coffee and the Peet\u2019s Labor Union will return to the bargaining table this Wednesday. Peet\u2019s Coffee on Dwight and Telegraph will close Friday, with some workers scheduled to stay until Feb. 4 to clean and empty the storefront.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Workers at Peet\u2019s Coffee on Telegraph Avenue and Dwight Way rallied outside their store Sunday, calling for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[4419,9905,74298,74296,74299,74297,74300,143,145,144,74295,74301,74,101,13774],"class_list":["post-149979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-chicago","tag-davis","tag-dino-solis","tag-dwight-way","tag-hex-duncan","tag-industrial-workers-of-the-world-union","tag-keurig-dr-pepper","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-peets-coffee","tag-peets-labor-union","tag-san-diego","tag-san-francisco","tag-telegraph-avenue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}