La Colombe Fires West Loop Baristas as Unionized Workers Cry Foul | Eater Chicago
"Five baristas were fired from the West Loop cafe at 955 W. Randolph Street days before the Thanksgiving holiday, wiping out nearly half the staff; workers say the terminations came just after four out of five Chicago locations ratified their union contracts with United Food and Commercial Workers Local No. 881 on Tuesday, October 22, and allege the firings were retaliatory and intended to intimidate. "Given the proximity to the ratification of the contract, this feels retaliatory, it feels intimidating and it starts the relationship between this brand new bargaining until, this brand new union within this company on a really antagonistic foot," says a barista involved in the union campaign, who adds, "And of course, there’s concern that this kind of disciplinary approach could be repeated at other cafes who also voted to unionize and who had the contracts, namely the Andersonville, Armitage, and Gold Coast locations." Workers say that a week before the firings a Chicago-area manager and a human-resources representative from the chain's headquarters pulled baristas one by one into impromptu meetings in the basement; the meetings were described as "policy reviews," but employees say they turned disciplinary. Unionized workers are covered by federal Weingarten rights which allow union reps to attend meetings disciplinary in nature to offer support for employees. Violators could face unfair labor practice charges. During the meetings, staff were shown videos of them working — in the footage, baristas were giving away free drip coffee to regular patrons, other service-industry workers, and unhoused individuals — and company representatives questioned the baristas and took detailed notes; one worker says that when they were fired the following week the company cited the footage as the reason. "They were essentially interrogation sessions," a barista says. "We were misled to believe they were not disciplinary, in retrospect they were, there was no talking or discussing of the disciplinary process. They showed us camera footage of us giving away free drinks and dismissed us without info or context." Another barista says, "The representative incorrectly dictated back what I was saying." Several of the fired employees asked to remain anonymous for fear of further retaliation; one said they never received any disciplinary actions or write-ups in the three years they worked at the location, and a veteran employee noted that under the site's previous culture it was occasionally acceptable to give away free drinks as a way to "build a bond with our regulars so that they would keep coming back and we’d have a good customer service relationship," adding, "It’s very difficult to refuse homeless people or homeless children. And also sometimes it’s a de-escalation tactic because we’ve had very aggressive homeless people in the past." Workers also point to a culture shift after the chain’s acquisition by a Greek yogurt company in December 2023 and note that the acquiring company has a history of labor strife with dairy farm workers. A company spokesperson did not answer questions about the meetings or terminations but wrote in an email, "We cannot comment on confidential employee matters, however, we can say that we take our [company’s] values and policies including our Standards of Conduct seriously, and enforce them equally, holding all employees across all aspects of the company to the same established standards. All employee matters are investigated thoroughly prior to any action being taken." One fired barista says, "I think they specifically targeted our cafe because the people at our location were some of the more militant and more senior people. Our cafe was seen as a problem more so than the others." - Leigh Giangreco
