September 2012
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| Peet's Chicago, September 18, 2012 |
SUPPORTERS RALLY AROUND A LIVING WAGE
PWG notified the community that we were expecting a corporate
entourage to arrive in Chicago and make a statement about a living wage at
Peet’s. Supporters gathered outside the store the night of the closed-door meeting
and stood respectfully outside with signs, then covered the store windows with
their signs to show the Lincoln Park community that Chicago wants Peet’s to pay
their workers a living wage.
NERVOUS PEET’S TAKES
UP DOMAIN SQUATTING
Days after PWG launched a Facebook page and blog, inspired a
community support rally, and sent an internal email cheerfully announcing our
organization to every corporate office employee and each of the 200 retail
stores, Peet’s corporate bought up peetsworkersgroup.org and over 20 variations of this URL, vainly
hoping to curtail our online presence. Peet’s also sent corporate office
employees and all Peet’s stores an email referring to our email announcement as
“spam” and instructing them to disregard it.
 |
| postcard to employees |
MEDIA, PROFESSORS
SUPPORT PWG
PWG gave interviews to multiple media sources and appeared
in articles in midwest and west coast publications, including award-winning
journalist Ellen Cushing’s East Bay Express article, “Chicago Peet’s Employees Are Organizing – Could the East Bay Be Next?” 8th Day Center for
Justice, Chicago’s iconic social justice nonprofit, featured PWG as a partner
in their newsletter, where they highlighted us as an important campaign to
support in the workers rights movement. (8th Day has been
instrumental in the ongoing actions and advocacy of our campaign.) In addition
to media, professors at prominent universities came forward with statements
supporting PWG’s living wage campaign. Read their quotes on PWG’s Facebook page.
October 2012
CHICAGO STARTING PAY
GOES UP 50 CENTS
Effective immediately after PWG publicized Peet’s embarrassing starting wage of $8.50/hour, management quietly raised the
starting wage for Chicago retail associates to $9/hour.
November 2012
PEET’S SCRAMBLES TO
LOCK DOWN MEDIA SITUATION
In response to continued media calls to Peet’s stores
concerning PWG, Peet’s instructed retail stores to post memos in the
back-of-house instructing store management to avoid making any statements
to the media.
December 2012
PWG SENDS HOLIDAY
GREETING TO EMPLOYEES NATIONWIDE
Peet’s employees across the country working the retail
holiday rush received a much-appreciated postcard in the mail at their stores letting
them know that PWG was advocating on their behalf to bring a living wage and paid
sick days to Peet’s.
January 2013
“INTERNAL MEMO”
SHOCKS AND AMUSES EMPLOYEES, BAFFLES CORPORATE
Clearly inspired by PWG’s sustainable employment campaign,
anonymous activists in California mailed a letter to Peet’s stores, printed on
the company letterhead and apparently sent from Peet’s corporate headquarters.
The letter read as an internal memo from recently retired CEO Pat O’Dea, and
promised the implementation of a living wage, paid sick days, and regularly
scheduled hours for all employees. Only at the end did the author reveal the
letter to be a hoax. Quick-acting employees made copies of the letter
before all original copies were intercepted or confiscated from each store. The
author has yet come forward to take credit for the letter, but employees
across the country got a good chuckle, while Peet’s corporate scrambled to find
the culprits internally for several days before giving up. Read a copy of the
Fake CEO Letter here.
SUPPORT ACTIONS CROP
UP IN MULTIPLE U.S. CITIES
PWG supporters, taking a cue from the September 2012 Chicago
store rally, decorated Peet’s stores in various cities in a similar theme and
sent photos to PWG.
March 2013
SHEFFIELD STORE
ACHIEVES $9 MINIMUM WAGE
Aware that a number of senior employees were still making less the new starting rate of $9/hour, PWG launched a successful campaign to
bring all employees up to or above $9/hour. The living wage in Chicago for one
person with no dependents is calculated by MIT as $10.48/hour. It's a start!
April 2013
 |
| Boston, MA, January 2012 |
RETAIL ASSOCIATE
BRIEFS NEW CEO ON LABOR ISSUES
PWG member Joshua Van Cleef followed Peet’s Open Door Policy
all the way to the top, initiating a frank, hour-long phone conversation with
Peet’s new CEO David Burwick. Joshua detailed various Peet’s labor
problems for David: 80% of employees not making a living wage, the
unsustainability of 4-hour-long shifts, and the inaccessibility of Peet’s
much-touted health care coverage. David acknowledged these concerns and promised
to address the issue of 4-hour shifts, which he quickly agreed were unreasonably
short. He also assured Joshua that there is a substantial amount of support for
a living wage within the new Peet’s HR department. Read the Progress Illinois article on Joshua and David’s discussion here.
PEET’S ADDRESSES PWG
WITH MANAGEMENT TRAINING SESSIONS
Shortly thereafter, Peet’s newly hired anti-union lawyer conducted
emergency union-busting training sessions for store management in Boston, MA.
May 2013
PWG SECURES HUNDREDS
OF CARIBOU EMPLOYEES’ JOBS
PWG aggressively publicized Peet’s plan to require all employees of recently acquired
Caribou Coffee to reapply for their own jobs when their stores were
rebranded as Peet’s stores in the upcoming year, despite the virtually
identical nature of the two jobs, and the common ownership of the two
companies. PWG advocated for these employees via social media and in discussion
with management. Peet’s promptly acknowledged the misguidedness of its plan,
and exempted all non-management Caribou employees from the reapplication process.
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| Fight For 15 rally, Chicago, IL, August 29, 2013 |
June 2013
HR INVITES COLLECTIVE PETITIONING
Peet’s new HR team changed course from the company’s stance last September, assuring PWG that it does acknowledge the existence of “group
concerns,” and that it will no longer force employees to address concerns only
in one-on-one meetings with management. Our HR Senior Manager has assured PWG
that employees are free to choose a group representative to bring any group
issue to management, and even suggested using the submission of a letter signed
by multiple employees as a way of bringing concerns to the company’s attention.
HR assures us that, moving forward, group concerns will be addressed in a
thorough and timely manner, per the Open Door Policy.
July/August 2014
 |
| Whole Foods Strike, July 31, 2013 |
PWG LAUNCHES COMMUNITY
NETWORK
2013 has marked the burgeoning of a new, creative, and energetic U.S. labor movement, as organizing initiatives gain momentum across the nation. PWG rallied in support at recent worker actions coordinated by the Restaurant Opportunities Center United and the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago. We are in talks with these and other leading justice organizations about partnerships in future campaigns to benefit Peet's workers and other low-wage workers across the nation. We are incredibly inspired by the energy and bravery of our fellow retail and fast-food workers, and look forward to a bright future of solidarity and further community-building.
Labor Day 2013
 |
| Capital Grille protest, July 24, 2013 |
Over the past year, all Chicago PWG members have been offered
promotions, including fast tracks to management. We have spoken frankly to
management all the way up to the CEO concerning PWG’s values and goals, and we
have been personally thanked by district management (and Caribou employees) for
convincing Peet’s to guarantee Caribou retail jobs during the Caribou-to-Peet’s
transition.
Most importantly, we have broken the oppressive
silence that plagues the U.S. low-wage workforce. We have created a respectful
voice of dissent within Peet’s. We speak openly about our wages, our rights,
and our vision for the company, and we empower our fellow workers to do the
same. Creating sustainable employment begins with dialogue, leads to education,
and results in action. We are committed to this process, and to our community.
Thank you all for your support.
Happy Labor Day!
It's nice to know that the Chicago employees have it so well.
ReplyDeleteI have worked less than twenty minutes from corporate HQ for nearly five years and I still make less than 10 dollars and hour. There is no employee representation in my store of any kind. The attendance policy is unevenly enforced, raises are usually around ten cents (even if you "exceeded expectations")-if given at all and time off for illness is a joke we laugh about as we cough and sneeze on the bar. Yet write-ups are given for 3-cup secret shops?
Peet's really treats it's Californian employees like garbage.
Peet's treats all of their retail employees like garbage. This is why the Chicago store is coming together to make change. My store in California is just starting to organize to do the same. We can do it!
DeleteWhat about being considered a part time employee while steadily working 39.9 or 38 hr weeks? That's kind of a joke isn't it? Meanwhile, some of us haven't had more than one day off in a row in months. That's 4 closing shifts, then one random day off, followed by an opening shift (4AM) - followed by more closing shifts, one day off followed by another opening shift. At random. It's like torture. When I do have a day off I'm too exhausted to do anything and it doesn't feel like a break at all.
ReplyDeletePlus if you are a shift lead and you are sick and there is not enough shift leads in your district to cover, you're stuck working with a fever or flu - no one cares.
Again, this is "part time"
Thanks for your comment! Please contact us at peetsworkersgroup@gmail.com, we'd like to know more about your store.
DeleteI work at a Peet's in the greater Los Angeles area. Already I have received 4 points off for late clock-ins & just today, received a "write-up" for forgetting to approve my own time-card. The "write-up" also lumped together a bunch of criticisms regarding my performance at Peet's on a Sunday, but in vague language that made it impossible for me to address my mistakes, and disproportionately at me even though the assistant manager who had been on duty too that day made mistakes as well.
ReplyDeleteIs there a group already organizing in California, b/c I'd love to get in touch with them...