Ann Arbor Sweetwaters Owners to Begin “Good Faith” Bargaining With New Union

by Jon King, Michigan Advance

Eight months after casting ballots, employees of Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea in Ann Arbor have had their union recognized.

That’s after a decision from a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing officer that rejected objections raised by the owners of the franchise to nearly a dozen ballots from the election held on Jan. 25.

Organized by a group called Sweetwaters Baristas United (SBU), the election saw 53 ballots cast out of 84 eligible employees, with employees voting 28 to 25 for union representation. Sweetwaters ownership challenged 11 of the ballots, contending  they had been improperly coerced by tips which were given by members of Teamsters Local 243, the local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which was seeking to represent the workers. The tips, amounting to $63.21, were received during a Sip In event held five days before the election at the West Washington Street location to support the union effort.

“(T)he evidence is insufficient to show the Petitioner engaged in objectionable conduct that reasonably tended to interfere with the employees’ free and uncoerced choice in the election,” wrote NLRB Hearing Officer Steven E. Carlson.

With the challenged ballots restored to the final tally, NLRB Regional Director Elizabeth Kerwin issued a certificate of representation on Sept. 13 officially recognizing the union, which was acknowledged by Sweetwaters Coffee and Tea co-founder and CEO, Lisa Bee.

“This has been a very long, emotional process, for our teams and our family which began in August of 2023, with an election in January 2024. We made three appeals to the NLRB, two were based on the voting, one was ruled in our favor. However, as of September 27, we will now begin to bargain with the union in good faith,” Bee said. “We are not against unionization, but when outsiders create issues where there are none, it makes us wonder how small businesses will continue to survive. We believe building bridges for communication between management and teams is important and needs to be genuine without the influence of outside organizers that are not part of our teams.”

Scott Quenneville, Teamsters Local 243 president, said the union is still waiting to hear back from Sweetwaters management about scheduling bargaining dates, and set a Tuesday deadline. If it doesn’t hear back before that, Quenneville says the union likely will file a complaint with the NLRB.

Once workers do begin bargaining, he says higher wages, better benefits, and reliable scheduling will be priorities, but also a better workplace atmosphere.

“They don’t like the way they’re treated there,” said Quennville. “I mean, that’s the big one. That is number one. They said that they’re treated very badly. I’ll put it in that term just to be politically correct, but that is the number one reason why they sought us out.”

The effort to unionize Ann Arbor baristas follows a similar effort at local Starbucks coffee stores, among at least 16 locations in Michigan that have voted to unionize, but continue to bargain for a contract with the corporation.