The photojournalist and author discusses his experiences capturing the essence of India’s oldest and largest coffee chain, as well as its legacy and importance as a resistance to brands like Starbucks.
It's the Coffee News Roundup: Week Ending April 25th
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This week, two Starbucks stores in Massachusetts announce their intention to unionize after the successful vote in Buffalo, while estimates for Brazil's 2021 coffee crop are down after drought.
Another week’s end brings another Coffee News Roundup, which as per usual at the moment features a lot of talk about Starbucks and unionization.
Let’s begin, shall we?
Inspired by the pro-union vote last week at a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, workers at two locations in Massachusetts have now officially filed for elections to join Workers United.
In a letter to Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, the organizers said, “We believe that there can be no true partnership without power-sharing and accountability. We are organizing a union in Boston because we believe that this is the best way to contribute meaningfully to our partnership with the company.”
Last week’s historic vote, in which the Elmwood location in Buffalo became the first Starbucks store in the United States to vote to unionize, empowered the workers in Massachusetts to “come together, amplify our voices, and tell corporate what we think can make Starbucks even better than it already is,” barista KyIah Clay told the Guardian.
While Starbucks announced pay rises just before the first union vote in Buffalo, baristas say that poor working conditions and understaffing have been rife throughout the pandemic. As the face of a company that had record revenue of $8.1 billion in the most recent quarter, they simply want more of a say in how the business, and their stores, are run.
Organizers in Massachusetts are bracing for similar anti-union campaigns to those Starbucks ran at the Buffalo locations. This included monitoring of stores by high-level executives, mandatory anti-union meetings, and attempts to water down the pro-union sentiment by shifting workers around and trying to have additional stores added to the vote.
Regional and district managers have already been visiting one of the unionizing stores, barista Tyler Daguerre said. “I think that they’re afraid of the unionization effort, and I’m sure that corporate is telling them to do whatever they can to persuade workers right now.”
The latest crop report from Conab, Brazil’s food supply and statistics agency, has come in with an estimate for Arabica down 35.5% from 2020. This is due to drought and the fact that 2021 is the off year of the country’s biennial production cycle. The full crop estimate, including Robusta, is showing a drop of 24.4% from 2020 (which was, to be fair, a record year for production).
These estimates, based on data collected in November after the country’s harvest ended, come as experts are touring coffee farms in Brazil’s Minas Gerais region to check on the prospects for 2022 after the drought, frost, and rains that have hit the country.
“So far, those studying crops have produced wide estimates for the 2022 harvest, though traders for now are still betting on a less fruitful crop,” the article in Reuters says.
Brazil’s harvests have an outsized influence on coffee’s commodity price, and the country’s struggles in 2021 are one of the major reasons for the C price reaching its highest point in ten years.
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“Months after union workers won at Colectivo, they’re still on hold” reads the headline in the Washington Examiner (the website is blocked in Europe due to GDPR, so here’s an archived version of the article).
Back in August, workers at Colectivo Coffee, a specialty mini-chain with locations in Wisconsin and Illinois, voted to form a union against a backdrop of “expensive, vindictive” union-busting from ownership that included hiring a notoriously anti-union consulting firm.
Now, four months later, the victorious workers are still awaiting National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certification of their union and the beginning of negotiating with Colectivo. “Rather than bargaining,” the article states, “Colectivo pressed on with objections in an attempt to reverse the outcome of the vote. So far, those objections have failed, but the legal process is still underway.”
For some organizers, the delaying tactics have only strengthened their belief in their unionization mission: “I’ve realized anything can be said, but unless it’s in a legal agreement, it’s not necessarily going to happen,” one worker said.
Dutch coffee conglomerate JDE Peet’s has joined US Vice President Kamala Harris’ “call to action” to increase private investment in Central America as a way to address what the White House calls the “root causes” of migration to the United States.
Back in June this section featured Nespresso’s role in the formation of Harris’ Partnership for Central America, and it seems JDE Peet’s will also engage in some nebulous “financial support” for coffee farmers in the region “through the implementation of new sustainability programs geared towards increased productivity, climate adaptation, income diversification and improved access to markets and credit.”
Because of course what coffee producers need is sustainability programs and improved access to markets and credit, not, you know, more money to feed their families and give them some hope for the future.
Cascara tea, made with dried coffee cherry, has become more popular in recent years as people look for ways to minimize waste in the coffee supply chain and utilize more of the coffee plant. While the legality of the drink is up in the air (it’s technically still banned in the EU), its health benefits have been shown in a new study weirdly funded by PepsiCo.
The research found that extracts from the fruit of the coffee cherry “consistently improved alertness” and led to “self-reported increases in vigor/activity and decreases in fatigue/inertia”.
The coffee cherry extract had very low caffeine content—around 22mg, or a fifth of a cup of coffee—but the researchers couldn’t rule out its role in the results without further study.
Your Cold Brew Won't Survive A Hot World by Amanda Little
Until next week, drink good coffee.
It's the Coffee News Roundup: Week Ending April 25th
A newsletter about coffee—its culture, politics, and how it connects to the wider world.
