Highwire Coffee Roasters Faces Worker-Led Effort To Unionize Amid Rapid Company Growth – CoffeeTalk

Highwire Coffee Roasters, a fast-growing coffee shop chain in the Bay Area, is launching a worker-led effort to unionize its employees. The company, which has seven locations in Alameda, Oakland, Berkeley, Albany, and Walnut Creek, has been growing rapidly, with three new locations opening in the last two years. The owners of Highwire, Rich Avella and Robert Myers, have expressed their respect for the rights of their employees and their commitment to complying with the law.

The workers are hoping to press the company to improve staffing levels, advocate for worker involvement in business decisions, and raise wages, all issues that have been brought to the owners’ attention for several years. Highwire’s employees are in touch with and hope to be represented by Northern California labor union United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5.

The labor effort comes as Highwire, which launched in Oakland in 2011, has been growing. The company now has seven locations in Alameda, Oakland, Berkeley, Albany, and Walnut Creek, including three that opened in the last two years. Two more are coming soon to Oakland food hall Prescott Market and a new Uptown Oakland development.

The cafes can be hamstrung by short staffing, including some cases where only one person is working. Highwire managers are hourly employees included in the tip pool, so it is difficult for them to get extra staff coverage to address maintenance issues or if a worker calls out sick, which can encourage employees to keep working when they’re ill. As the company has grown, it has put added pressure on the existing cafes, with the San Pablo Avenue cafe staying open on a month-to-month basis and the new Uptown Oakland location not being officially announced to staff.

In an industry where high turnover is the cultural norm, it can be challenging for workers to find sustainable solutions. If cafes want to exist, they need workers who are treated well enough to maintain them. Highwire’s owners have not yet responded to their letter.

This marks the latest push to unionize in the Bay Area food world, as well as the broader coffee industry. Famed San Francisco bakery Tartine unionized in 2021, while an organizing effort at Bay Area boba chain Boba Guys resulted in backlash and worker protests. A union movement is underway inside Starbucks stores locally nationwide, as well as Peet’s Coffee and Philz in the Bay Area.

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