Coffee Shop Workers Defy the Odds in Anti-Union Wisconsin

Gabby Beesley and I closed Wonderstate Milwaukee for the last time in December 2020. There was no celebration planned, but co-worker Averi Ziebell-Malone rolled in just as the last customers headed out. In typical fashion, she brought an infectious positive attitude and a bottle of Champagne. She tried to hand me a plastic cup while I finished the day’s dishes. Not yet 21, and shy to drink with coworkers who were older than me, I wouldn’t take a drink until I was clocked out.

Wonderstate’s Milwaukee location was slated to close for an undetermined length of time, a fate that had been looming over the staff for weeks. The closure came during one of many peaks in the COVID-19 pandemic, and business had been undeniably slow.

It also came at the height of our union drive. Steph Achter, the coffee lead, and Molly Keifer, the kitchen lead, had been working to garner support and coordinate an election to join Teamsters Local 344. We found out that we had won our election just days before the café shut down.

As Gabby and I finished the closing tasks, other workers started trickling in, along with co-owner Scott Lucey. We downed the champagne, and Averi ran to the corner store to buy gin that tasted like pine needles (we had tonic water left over from a summer special).

We stayed for hours. Averi climbed into the kitchen fridge and shut the door just to see if she would fit, Gabby began arm wrestling everybody and Scott took dozens of pictures. We were celebrating the café as much as we were saying goodbye to it, all while trying not to think about our impending unemployment.

Scott practically invented the throwdown, a competition to see who can make the prettiest latte, so, when Averi suggested it, he drew up the bracket. When it was my turn, I missed the cup and poured the 160-degree milk over my hand.

No one remembers who won, or how long it took us to clean up the mess, but the closing party was the beginning of a new era, though no one knew it at the time. In the coming months, Wonderstate would turn over full ownership of the space to Scott Lucey, and he would reopen as Likewise Coffee – the first unionized coffee company in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin was once a union stronghold; now, the union that began at Wonderstate Coffee is a breakout case.

The Likewise union’s success is unique, but it is part of a larger awakening in the service industry about wages, schedules and other rights. As the first successful café union in the state, Likewise represents the coffee community’s shift toward equitable workplaces and fair pay.

“Wisconsin’s former glory was based on high union membership, and, as a result, a booming blue-collar working class,” said Michael Rosen, professor of economics at MATC and president of the American Federation of Teachers Local 212.

In Wisconsin, union membership is now below the national average, and the minimum wage is almost half of what MIT estimates is livable for a single person with no children in the dairy state.

Dangerous working conditions caused by the pandemic have pushed workers in the food and service industry to rethink what their labor is worth and refuse to work for less, creating a job market where service workers have significant leverage – and employees all over the city are cashing in.

The food service workers at Fiserv Forum, for example, reached a landmark agreement with the Bucks in 2020. With the help of the Milwaukee Area Service and hospitality Workers Organization (MASH), they raised the wages of 1,000 workers at the arena to $15, among other protections and diversity policies.

Colectivo Coffee workers are following close behind with the help of IBEW Local 494 – they won their election by just seven votes, but their union certification has been stalled by repeated challenges from Colectivo management.

In March, Colectivo said in a statement to Media Milwaukee, “We want to be clear that as people with progressive values, we are not against the right to organize, and we are not anti-union. However, we do believe very strongly that this union will not solve the challenges of this company and will not make our co-workers Colectivo experience better.”

The fight between Colectivo management and workers is illustrative of employers’ opposition to a unionized workplace, even at companies that boast about liberal values.

Wonderstate took a similar approach toward my coworkers’ union drive. Like at Colectivo, Scott and a representative from Wonderstate coffee held a meeting over Zoom to say that a union would cause more problems than it would solve. Scott’s perspective hasn’t changed since Likewise opened, despite his cooperation with Teamsters and his small staff.

“One way that [Steph and Molly Kiefer] explained it to us was that a union contract can be whatever we want it to be, and I did not believe that because I don’t think unions are that soft,” Scott said. “I kind of knew that that’s what they might be hoping for, but I didn’t totally trust Teamsters 344.”

Even talking to me, a friend, Scott seemed guarded when discussing the union. He crossed his legs and put his hands in his lap and spoke more slowly, as if choosing his words carefully.

Gabby, who was a manager at the time, says they opposed the union at first because they believed the anti-union rhetoric that Wonderstate used, which they now know to be mostly inaccurate. The owners’ argument was that there would be major changes in communication and friendliness in the café, which Gabby says has not proven to be true since they began working at Likewise. Gabby claims that the company even went so far as to suggest they report back on things they hear coworkers say about the union drive while on shift in the café.

I sat with Gabby in the quiet and dimly lit upper floor of Rochambo Coffee & Tea House for our interview. Gabby drank a vibrant blue tea made of butterfly pea flowers and told me how they felt at the time. “I was very bitter. It hurt because I couldn’t be part of it. It’s not easy to have to choose between [supporting] my friends or my job.”

This strategy of busting the union by offering skewed or even false information is common, according to Scott Adams, professor of economics at UW-Milwaukee. Workers at Colectivo report similar experiences.

“Management has every incentive to stop you from unionizing, so the information they give you is certainly biased from their perspective,” Adams said.

The evolution of Likewise Coffee

Scott has been operating out of 232 E Erie St. in Milwaukee’s Third Ward since 2015, though the café has donned many different names and brands in the last six years.

First, the shop was called Kickapoo coffee and was co-owned by Scott and the founders of the Kickapoo roastery in Viroqua, Wis. In 2020, the company transitioned to the name “Wonderstate” out of respect for the Kickapoo Tribe. I started working at the café during the transition, when basically every other customer asked if it was still the same coffee.

Steph and Gabby say that they still get that question regularly since the shop, now solely owned by Scott, reopened as Likewise in March.  The owner and president of Wonderstate, TJ Semanchin, said the Milwaukee location closed because it had exhausted PPP funds (forgivable business loans offered by the federal government during the pandemic) and was losing money.

“We were staring another winter in the face and the economic reality was that we couldn’t afford it,” Semanchin said.

In those final months, conversations about what a union might look like materialized into real steps and meetings about an election. Wonderstate employed seven people, six of whom were eligible to vote in the election, and the final count would need to be 50% plus one vote for the union to win.  

According to Molly, union talks started at Wonderstate because there was a mismatch between what the company said they valued and how they treated employees.

“Before we decided to unionize, we presented a plan which included increased wages, holiday pay, and representation when decisions which effect café workers are being discussed. When we approached the leadership in Viroqua, they acknowledged the issues we brought up but ultimately decided that they were too ‘burnt out’ to address them at the time,” Molly recalled in an email.

All the while, leadership was working from home while baristas and kitchen staff worked in the café during the pandemic and endured maskless customers before a vaccine was developed. This reality rubbed Molly the wrong way: “we realized they had no intention to listen to us, so we unionized so that they had to.”

The demands Molly outlined are remarkably similar to that of the Colectivo union effort, which center wage increases, regular reviews, regular equipment repairs and a pathway to address systemic racism within the company, according to the Instagram account associated with the volunteer organizing committee.

Benefits and trends

For Gabby and Steph, newfound benefits like holiday pay, consistent scheduling and sick days come with heightened security and satisfaction with their work.

Other features of the contract promise an equitable grievance procedure and eco-transit & wellness reimbursement of up to $20/month – all of which were not in place previously.

These days, Steph says they are happier than they have ever been in their life. They’re working on buying a house next year in Bayview, aided by the financial security brought on by the contract that they worked so hard to create.

I don’t feel worn down all the time. I’m less anxious, and I like going to work.

Steph Achter

Job security and a living wage come up in every union drive, especially in Wisconsin. This is because ours is an at-will state – meaning that a worker can be fired for any reason at any time with few exceptions — and our minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour.

Professor Adams suggests that these similarities are no coincidence. “Anytime you have this sector unionizing, or success at a small or mid-sized restaurant, it emboldens and gives more power to other restaurants in the area to kind of go at it.”

Union negotiations and struggling friendships

Winning a union election is one thing, but negotiating a contract is another beast entirely. Fortunately, a process that typically takes many months (or even longer for larger companies like the Milwaukee Art Museum, which has been in negotiations for over a year) was wrapped up in just four months for the Likewise union, though Steph says the meetings were not quite harmonious.

“It was hard for me during this whole process because from organizing and then negotiating, things were really tense between Scott and me and that was hurtful because I felt a kinship with him for four years,” Steph said. “I was really nervous that we were never going to have that again.”

Steph said Scott was clearly unsure how he would make their requests happen, and nervous about what would ensue if he couldn’t.

According to Adams, this fits with why employers oppose unions at their own businesses, even when they are in favor at other places: “Employers build their small business thinking that they can control wages, environment, benefits and conditions and then they fight the union because they don’t want to lose that power and not know exactly what will happen.”

Though Scott has mostly stopped vocalizing his opposition to the union, his feelings have not changed since the election. “One thought I had was like, why can’t we accomplish these things without this bureaucracy? Without this third party,” he said.

There is a culture of anti-union sentiment in Wisconsin since former Governor Scott Walker pushed for Act 10, which does not affect private-sector workers but has altered how regular people think of unions over time. Feelings which even this small, tight-knit café could not work around in their efforts to collectively bargain for a seat at the table where major decisions about their workplace are being made.

Looking forward

In January, Likewise workers will negotiate the final part of their contract focused on wages and raises. As the café grows and hires more baristas, Steph, the Likewise union steward, hopes new employees are interested in being dues-paying members.

The Colectivo union is well on its way to certification, and, if Adams is correct, the wins at Likewise and Colectivo could embolden workers to follow suit.