
Defend BB Young: Fired for Union Support
Donation protected
On Tuesday, June 17th, workers across all East Bay Blue Bottle locations declared their intent to form a union, called BBIU East Bay, and requested the company’s recognition.
At the W.C. Morse location (4270 Broadway), three employees read the letter of intent aloud to the customers present. One of those workers was BB Young.
The next morning, BB arrived to open the cafe and found area leader Jason Miller and store manager Sean Bartee waiting to fire them.
The supposed pretext for their firing was punishing lateness. Eight separate incidents were listed on the termination form. In seven of these incidents, BB was late by only 4 minutes, and once by 9 minutes.
The most recent of these incidents occurred June 5, almost two weeks earlier. In other words, management had this data for almost two weeks, but they chose the day after a union was announced to act on it.
We have no doubt that the decision to fire BB was blatant retaliation for attempting to unionize, carried out to make other employees involved in the union fear for their jobs. Firing such a beloved and hardworking person comes with a clear, threatening message: if BB can get fired, anyone can get fired.
BB has worked at WC Morse for over 4 years, and is a beloved member of the community. They’ve built strong, deep bonds with so many regulars, whose faces light up when they see BB’s smile. It’s not exaggerating to say that BB is the heart of the community at W.C. Morse.
But more than that, BB is also an impeccable team member. They are always the first one to stay late to cover breaks, pick up extra shifts just to help out the team, and for months they did the job of a manager, without a promotion or pay raise, while the cafe leader was on leave.
Besides these intimidation tactics, it should not go unnoticed that BB is both Black and queer, and fired the day before Juneteenth, smack in the middle of Pride month. Blue Bottle is a company that cheerfully provides pins for baristas to show their pronouns, and free Pride T-shirts, but when it comes to actually showing that they value members of the communities they claim to welcome, this facade goes out the window.
Organizer
olivia champion
Organizer
Oakland, CA