Union Drives in Food Service May Signal a New Era in Labor Activism

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In March of 2021, exactly one year since they began organizing, Colectivo Coffee workers voted to decide whether they would be represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, or IBEW.

The initial vote ended in a 99-99 tie, although that will be broken when at least seven challenged ballots will be counted by the National Labor Relations Board on May 25.

Former Colectivo trainer and vocal member of the Voluntary Organizing Committee Zoe Muellner said in an interview before the ballots were counted that Colectivo played “quite a savage game,” referring to the company’s decision to hire the Labor Relations Institute, which Muellner described as a union-busting firm.

Organizers uncovered a contract between Colectivo Coffee and the Labor Relations Institute detailing the firm’s hourly fee.

The consulting firm charged Colectivo $375 per hour for its services, according to documents obtained by the VOC, during a time when the company was closing several cafes all over the city.

John Jacobs, assistant business manager at IBEW Local 494 said this expense was “puzzling” considering the closures. However, Colectivo maintained that hiring the firm was “an investment to ensure coworkers are fully informed” according to a statement.

The statement went on to say, “Colectivo would much rather be spending these funds on wages, equipment, tools and improvements to systems, but this wasn’t our choice.”

Hiring a consulting firm for this purpose is not a unique strategy, said Kevin Schwerdtfeger, director of organizing at Teamsters Local 344. In his experience, Schwerdtfeger said that Colectivo’s was a common technique to prevent unionization in the workplace.

The VOC also employed several time-tested tactics in service-sector organizing to engage customers in the union drive. These tactics included a reverse boycott, or, inviting customers to order their coffee ‘#UnionStrong.’

The VOC encouraged community members to order their coffee Union Strong to show support for the effort.

Establishing A Trend


From McDonald’s to Amazon, there have been several high-profile union drives since 2017 that seem to build on each other’s successes and failures, snowballing into larger drives that come closer to success.

Photo from a Fight for $15 release announcing the strike.

In his piece for Eater, Matthew Sedacca argues that “In private sectors like digital media and in public sectors like education, union drives and strikes quickly developed from flash-in-pan anomalies to a growing norm.”

This idea holds true in Milwaukee. Stone Creek Coffee could be considered a catalyst for the unsuccessful union push at Comet Cafe on Farwell Avenue, the still-contested effort at Colectivo, and the successful unionization of Wonderstate Coffee in the Third Ward (now called Likewise Coffee).

These three events occurred within months of each other, at times overlapping. Though the conditions and responses from employers varied, all three drives had extensive public support, according to those familiar with the process.

According to a study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, about 76% of new union members in 2017 were under the age of 35, which, according to Eater, suggests a new energy for organized labor among young workers.

Michael Childers, a professor of economics at UW-Madison, agreed with that assertion: “Of course a trend exists. Those are the jobs that exist!”

A Bit of Backstory

A report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that goods-producing labor has been on the decline, while service-providing labor increases every year.

The bureau defines goods-producing work as industries like construction, manufacturing, mining and logging, and service-providing work as industries such as trade, transportation, utilities, information and financial activities, business services, education and health services and leisure and hospitality services.

Childers argued that the shift in the economy toward service-providing labor explains the perceived rise in union activity in the service industry.

Despite this change, union organizations have stayed relatively the same.

Professor John Heywood of UWM said in an interview that food service workers may have always had the desire to unionize, and this momentum may well be traditional union organizations catching up.

“Their traditional base in manufacturing and the trades is diminishing – the auto industry employs about 300,000 now, compared to fast food, which employs 3.5 million,” Heywood said.

Heywood believes that the service industry has too high a turnover to make unionization very effective in some ways.

Heywood added that “there is a big difference between a Burger King with 37 employees and an Amazon fulfillment center with a thousand … a union drive takes a long time and it takes commitment that a fast-food employee might not be around for long enough to see through.”

Childers disagreed, arguing instead that the thing that makes unionization difficult in all industries is the employers.

“Employers resist unions in an effort to control the pay gap,” Childers said. “So I think it’s really more about the position that the companies take in terms of their workers. Companies want to maintain power and control, and they are willing to hire consultants and do whatever it takes to maintain that.”

Heywood favored traditional union organizational tactics and structures over modern, service-oriented organizations like the Fight for $15 Movement.

Childers’ believes the tactics in the service sector are asking different questions.

“One of the Fight for $15 slogans is ‘One Job Is Enough’ and I think that resonates with people,” Childers said. “I think people are like, wait a minute. I thought we had like 40-hour work weeks? Why do I need to work 60, 70, 80, 90 hours a week just trying to keep a roof over our heads?”

The Fight for $15 Movement mirrors traditional union organizations in that it uses collective, direct action to make gains in workers rights. The main difference, according to Heywood, is that it lacks the ability to protect workers as more established organizations can.

However, Childers said that most workers are protected by the NLRA and therefore have some protection inherently.

Whether Fight for $15 can be considered a union organization or not, the gains are very real.

In April, President Biden signed an executive order raising the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15, a move that gave raises to 390,000 workers, according to a release posted to the organization’s website.

The release also stated that about half of workers who would see a raise would be women, and half would be Black or Hispanic workers.

What Does It Mean?

The data shows an unfortunate reality: Those working in the food service are most likely to fall into the 4.2% of workers in the United States who are classified as the ‘working poor,’ or, workers whose earnings still fall below the poverty level.

If 54% of food service workers are women, and about 14% are Black, and around 27% are Hispanic or Latinx as the bureau states, then most of the working poor are already disenfranchised.

However disappointing, this also means that Black and brown women stand to benefit the most from this upward momentum in labor organizing – and organizations like Fight for $15 are at the forefront of that fight.


According to the Economic Policy Institute, unions raise wages for both union and nonunion workers, reduce wage gaps and workplace discrimination for women and people of color, improve health and safety in the workplace and offer family-supporting benefits.

Data from an economic news release on weekly earnings for workers by union affiliation supports this: In the Leisure and Hospitality industry, which includes arts and recreation, accommodations, food services and drinking places, union workers made 1.2 times more than nonunion workers. A slight margin, which over the course of a year comes out to more than $3,500.

Going Forward

This week, McDonald’s workers in 15 cities across America will strike for $15 per hour. On social media, claims of a labor shortage at various fast-food restaurants have gone viral, and some blame the generous unemployment benefits.

Fight for $15 leaders, however, blame unlivable wages and corporate greed, according to an announcement of the strike on the organization’s website.

By the end of this month, Colectivo Workers will have the final results of their year-long campaign. Their organizing has been driven by demands for more consistent scheduling, pay raises, anti-discrimination language in hiring, safer COVID-19 protocols and addressing systemic racism within the company.

“When you think about where we have come from, we’ve really done something fantastic,” voluntary organizer and Colectivo worker KD said in an instagram video after the initial vote count. “This movement started with a handful of workers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and it has spread to three different cities, across two state lines, in the middle of a global pandemic that we all had to work through.”

“Colectivo would not challenge ballots that they thought were ‘no’ votes,” KD went on. “So we feel good about our chances.”

If the challenged ballots put workers on top like KD hopes, Colectivo Coffee will be the largest unionized coffee chain in the United States.