Employees at five Blue Bottle coffee shop locations in Boston are pushing for unionization under the Blue Bottle Independent Union, aiming to improve wages, working conditions, and staff participation in café operations. This movement comes amid a broader wave of unionization efforts in the Boston area's coffee shops, inspired by the national Starbucks union. The union is unique as it is independently run, without affiliation to a larger organization. Workers are demanding a living wage, democratic control, and comprehensive harassment protection, citing high manager turnover, inadequate training, and management's apathy towards facility issues. The unionization effort reflects the workers' dissatisfaction with Blue Bottle's treatment of staff, which they believe contradicts the company's public image of quality and fairness.
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