About This Episode
The affects of the COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on small businesses across the United States, including Augie’s Coffee. Workers began to form a worker’s union to express their concerns on the lack of safety measurements that Augie’s Coffee was not implementing when communication between employees of Augie’s Coffee and management became inconsistent and at times non-existent.
Augie’s Coffee management decided their best course of action was to fire their entire staff even when the company had received federal aid from the Paycheck Protection Program. From the discourse of being fired from Augie’s Coffee, the workers formed Augie’s Union and have now moved to creating a worker-owned coffee cooperative that will be announced in the coming weeks.
Tune into The Brew with Val and Luis as they speak with Kelley Bader of Augie’s Union and how their new cooperative will have a strong focus on community.
Topics discussed in this episode include:
1. The origins of Augie’s Union
2. Having and rewarding quality workers
3. The Inland Empire and supporting your local community
4. The stigma around Worker Unions
5. Kelley’s failure story
