Colectivo Coffee employee and union supporter Patrick Zastrow speaks Monday at a news conference to promote the PRO Act, which would strengthen labor rights for workers. He s flanked by Bill Franks, left, of the Dane County NAACP, and Stephanie Bloomingdale, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO. (Erik Gunn | Wisconsin Examiner)
Patrick Zastrow was among more than 200 Colectivo Coffee workers who voted in March on whether to have a union represent employees at the chain’s 20 coffee shops in Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago, along with those working at its production facility, bakery and warehouse.
The vote came after months of anti-union campaigning by the chain’s owners and management including required meetings with an outside anti-union consultant.
Workers at Wisconsin Voices say they were fired to shut down unionization. //end headline wrapper ?>Get a daily rundown of the top stories on Urban Milwaukee
Wisconsin Voices workers at a Fair Maps fundraiser earlier this year. Photo courtesy of Wisconsin Voices Workers.
When workers at Wisconsin Voices told the progressive organizing and fundraising group that they had formed a staff union, they hoped the group’s leaders would accept their choice.
Wisconsin Voices has for years partnered with dozens of like-minded grass-roots activist groups involved in voter registration, racial justice, climate change and other issues. Many of its partner organizations have close ties with organized labor, and some have collective bargaining agreements with their own employees.