I was aware that some Philadelphia coffee shops were unionized, though I will admit that I didn’t see how that made much sense. In response to the tweet from The Philadelphia Inquirer pictured at the right, @JoeDollinger replied:

We have a barista union? Do people realize it’s not hard to make coffee?

@TooMader replied and repented being a capitalist stooge:

I never realized how overly capitalist I was pouring my own coffee at Wawa. Sorry comrades.

The Keurig coffee machine on our kitchen countertop, with one of my favorite coffee cups.

I applaud anyone who recognizes the superiority of Wawa coffee!

Alas! There is no Wawa close to us in the Bluegrass State, though one is planned for eastern Fayette County, where I-75 meets Richmond Road. However, rather than counting on baristas to serve me overpriced coffee, we have instead exploited another capitalist invention, the Keurig! Since Mrs Pico prefers a different coffee than I do, it’s the perfect thing for us, and, brewed one cup at a time, there’s no wasted half-pots of coffee in a carafe sitting around.

Local 80, Philly’s barista union, calls for Ultimo Coffee boycott

Local 80 is encouraging customers to “suspend their use of Ultimo Coffee products until owners settle a contract with their workers.”

by Jenn Ladd | Wednesday, February 21, 2024 | 6:00 AM EST

Local 80, the nearly two-year-old food service union that represents employees at various independent coffee shops in Philadelphia, announced it is calling for a boycott of Ultimo Coffee beginning today. The boycott comes a week after unionized Ultimo employees publicly authorized a strike, and a week before the union’s next bargaining session with the cafe’s owners.

Ultimo Coffee, Rittenhouse Square, from their website.

Ultimo’s four Philadelphia cafes unionized in late 2022. Owners Aaron and Elizabeth Ultimo and union employees have been negotiating a tentative first contract for just over a year. In January, employees at the Germantown and Graduate Hospital shops moved to decertify their unions, leaving just 12 workers represented under two Ultimo unions at the Newbold and Rittenhouse cafes.

Local 80 is encouraging customers to “suspend their use of Ultimo Coffee products until owners settle a contract with their workers,” according to a release.

The Ultimos could not be reached immediately for comment.

There’s more at the original.

Unions have power when the employees are highly skilled at some difficult to train and replace position; it’s not like Joe Schmuckatella can just walk in off the street and do skilled welding jobs. Electricians and plumbers require training, and if some of them were trained on the job while working as helpers — I was! — it still takes a long time.

But the photo used in the Inky’s tweet, by the newspaper’s staff photographer David Maialetti, shows “Barista Emily Halpern mak(ing) a hand pour coffee at Ultimo’s Catharine Street shop in Philadelphia on November 20, 2014.” Just how much training does it take to get a new employee to be able to pour hot water through coffee grounds in a filter to make a single cup of coffee? The barista shown is doing, in person, what our Keurig does: pouring a measured amount of hot water through coffee grounds — though a Keurig actually pressurizes the water a bit — to make a single cup of coffee.

So, why does Ultimo Coffee use baristas to hand pour the coffee in front of customers? I can see one reason: if they just had Keurigs lined up, customers might be able to see it and say to themselves, “Self, I can do this at home for maybe 50¢ a cup!” Of course, when it comes to the shop in tony Rittenhouse Square, perhaps saving money doesn’t really matter. And, depending upon how busy their shops are, they might need several people to handle customer service during peak hours.

That’s a bit simplistic, in that Ultimo’s website shows fancy shops in upscale locations, with seating both inside and out, as well as various breakfast foods. Showing a picture of a hard coffee mug, you can apparently sit down with your pretty wife and enjoy a pleasant breakfast, outside on Locust Street in nice weather, or inside if that’s what you prefer. But it’s still not the kind of job for which a new employee can easily be trained.

Unionization and the threat of strikes work when replacement workers cannot easily be found, and the company against which the strike is called cannot handle a long work stoppage.

A previous story in the Inquirer reported that “The Philadelphia Joint Board recently set up a relief fund for organized Ultimo employees.” But it also noted that:

“We will continue to work through all remaining issues with the Union, and we are confident that we will reach a mutually-agreeable solution,” the Ultimos said in a statement. “We are proud that the employees at our Newbold and Rittenhouse stores make an average of $25 per hour. Employees are guaranteed a minimum of $20/hour, including tips.”

What the heck does a cup of coffee and a croissant cost there that employees average $25 an hour? That 50¢ for a cup of coffee in my Keurig sounds better all the time!