Workers at Milwaukee-based Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co. have unanimously voted to unionize under the Milwaukee Area Service & Hospitality Workers Organization.
The final vote tally from the election, held Wednesday by the National Labor Relations Board, was 37 to 0, with an additional 7 voters subject to challenge, according to an announcement by MASH on Thursday.
MASH was formed in 2018 to represent service employees of Fiserv Forum and Deer District and has since expanded to represent workers at Pabst Theater Group and most recently at Fairgrounds Coffee and Tea.
Anodyne workers’ effort to unionize comes roughly two years after the business was acquired by FairWave Coffee Collective, a subsidiary of Kansas private equity firm Great Range Capital.
In April, employees at the roaster’s four Milwaukee-area locations sent a letter to FairWave requesting union recognition, with 47 out of 50 eligible employees having signed union authorization and membership cards. Fairwave declined to recognize and bargain with the union and challenged the request, according to reporting by other local media outlets.
Fairwave at that point could have petitioned for an NLRB-sanctioned election but ultimately did not. Workers then on April 22 filed a petition for a union election, “this time backed by 100% of eligible Anodyne workers who had signed cards,” according to MASH.
Eligible employees include all full-time and regular part-time baristas, barista coffee/tea leads, barista shift supervisors, event staff, factory production, shipping and delivery employees and warehouse leads at Anodyne’s four locations, at 224 W. Bruce St. in Walker’s Point, 2920 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. in Bay View, inside the Milwaukee Public Market at 400 N. Water St. and 7471 Harwood Ave. in Wauwatosa.
MASH accused Fairwave of running a “standard anti-union campaign,” citing “attempts to weaponize the procedures of the NLRB.” For example, the election was originally scheduled to take place May 21 but after the NLBR postponed the second half of voting in the middle of the day, Fairwave’s attorney had the NLRB re-run the election rather than resuming.
MASH conceded that FairWave “did not persuade or coerce a single worker to oppose unionization in a testament to the strength and unity of Anodyne workers.”
The National Labor Relations Board will certify Wednesday’s election after seven days, pending any objections filed by either party, MASH said in its announcement.
If there are no objections, the NLRB will certify MASH as the bargaining agent for the collective bargaining unit, and the employer will be obligated to recognize the union and begin negotiating in good faith to settle a first contract for Anodyne workers, according to MASH.
The NLRB will conduct post-election hearings on the employment status of five Anodyne workers that FairWave Holdings LLC claims are supervisors — and are therefore ineligible to be represented by the union.
Anodyne is certainly not the first coffee shop chain to unionize. Workers at Colectivo Coffee Roasters were granted union representation in March 2022 under the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 494. Starbucks cafes across the country, including one in Oak Creek, have also campaigned to be unionized. Workers at Fairgrounds Coffee and Tea in Milwaukee’s Yankee Hill neighborhood voted to unionize in January.
“From baristas and bartenders to cooks and cleaners, hospitality and service sector workers in Milwaukee are unionizing to balance the power with their employers and secure a meaningful, effective voice and seat at the table in their workplaces,” said Peter Rickman, president and business manager at MASH.
