Fired!

So what happens when employees organize? According to existing labor law, it's illegal to fire them for doing so. But according to PWG's lawyer, it's not illegal to fire management for letting them.

Our store manager, David Bloom, received the districtwide "Manager of the Quarter" award for the second quarter of 2012. This is not an employee-nominated award. It is bestowed solely by Peet's corporate: Mr. Bloom's bosses. Mr. Bloom received this award some weeks before Peet's Workers Group made their presence known to the company.

Three days ago, in a mandatory all-store meeting, Peet's corporate leadership team members blatantly ignored PWG's formal proposals for a living wage and sick days. That same leadership team then scapegoated our store manager in a transparent attempt to divert attention away from the real issues and towards store operational issues of no relevance to PWG's letter.

Today a memo in our back room states, "[e]ffective immediately David Bloom is no longer employed with Peet's Coffee and Tea."

This is one of several bullet points on a list of actions being taken to "improve our operations and the store environment." Yet prior to PWG's public appearance, corporate's view of our store's operations under Mr. Bloom was so positive that they felt he deserved an award for his performance.

Sources say that Mr. Bloom worked a full shift yesterday, went home, and was made to return for a meeting with the leadership team later in the day, at which meeting he was fired.