It Could Happen Here - Strikes, Walkouts, and Union Busting At Nestlé's Blue Bottle

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

Mia talks with two members of Blue Bottle Independent Union about their campaign of strikes and walkouts against management's contract negotiation delay tactics. Website: bluebottleunion.orgStrike fund: tinyurl.com/bbiu-strike Want to organize your store? Email us at [e-mail] with the Subject Line: [Your city] Barista InterestSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. You know the shade is always shady. It's right here. Season 6 of the podcast Reasonably Shady with Giselle Bryan and Robin Dixon is here dropping every Monday. As two of the founding members

of the Real Housewives Potomac were giving you all the laughs, drama, and reality news you can handle. And you know we don't hold back. So come be reasonable or shady with us each and every Monday. Listen to Reasonably Shady from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

I knew it was a bomb the second that it exploded. I felt it ripped through me. In season two of RipCurrent, we asked, who tried to kill Judy Berry and why? They were climbing trees and they were sabotaging logging equipment in the woods. She received death threats before the bombing. She received more threats after the bombing. I think that this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our movement. Episodes of Rip Current Season 2 are available now.

Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Michael Lewis here. My best-selling book, The Big Short, tells the story of the build-up and burst of the U.S. housing market back in 2008. A decade ago, the Big Short was made into an Academy Award-winning movie, and now I'm bringing it to you for the first time. as an audiobook narrated by yours truly. The big short story, what it means to bet against the market, and who really pays for an unchecked financial system, is as relevant today as it's ever been.

Get the big short now at Pushkin.fm slash audiobooks, or wherever audiobooks are sold. Atlanta is a spirit. It's not just a city. It's where Kronk was born in a club in the West End. A four world star, it was 559. Where preachers go viral. and students at the HPCU turned heartbreak into resurrection,

where Dream was brought Hollywood to the South, and hustlers bring their visions to create Black wealth. Nobody's rushing into relationships with you. I'm Big Rube. Listen to Atlanta is on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Callsome Media. Welcome to Jacob here, a podcast that boldly asked the question

what if a whole bunch of your life wasn't controlled by the bizarre whims of random dictators? This is your host, Mia Wong, and the last time we saw the Blue Bottle Union, they had staged a walkout, treated eclipse. Now they are back again to talk about union shit. And yeah, with me is Alex Pine, who's the president of Blue Bottle Union, and Abby Sado, the secretary-treasurer. yeah, both of you too, welcome to the show. Hi.

Thanks for having us both back on. Yes, thank you so much. Yeah, I'm really excited to talk about this because the last one, I've got to say, that was one of the absolute funniest UD things I've ever heard. Yeah, I still can't get over how DHS got called on us when we tried to file for our election. So what inch.

Like, I feel like this is one of the things about doing the show is like, I'm like about to be five years into this, right? It's like, you think you've seen it all. And then just like, Like, no, just the most unhinged bullshit you've ever heard in your entire life because, like, just like the capacity for cruelty and inventiveness of bosses is effectively infinite. So they can always find some bullshit to pull that you've never seen before. And they love to do it, too.

Yeah. This is one of the reasons why we unionize to begin with is just because bosses can be petty tyrants. Yeah. And sometimes it seems like the only reason that they got into being a boss is because they want to be a petty tyrant, but don't have the soul for politics. Anyways, yeah, we unionized last May for anybody that's unaware. Bluebottle is a so-called specialty coffee chain

that is owned entirely by Nestle. Yes, that one that everyone regards as white as being evil. Yeah. See an extremely long episode that I did, for example, about Nestle, chocolate, child labor. It's great. It's child slave labor.

Good stuff. We love capitalism. And their coffee business, This is truly no better. Yeah. I mean, this is going to get wildly off topic before we even begin, but if anybody looks up the NGO coffee watch, they do a lot of great reporting and research on the supply chains of coffee specifically Nestle's and Starbucks's, and it's all very ugly stuff.

But Blue Bottle. Blue Bottle is a specialty coffee chain owned by Nestle. We unionized all six of their Greater Boston locations in May of 2024. And this year, we added four locations in the East Bay Area. to our union in July. Hell yeah. Yeah. We also just concluded a multi-day strike

as an independent union at the end of November, so Black Friday. Hell yeah, hell yeah. Yeah, so let's talk about that strike. Well, actually, I guess, okay, we should probably do the run-up to what has been happening until we got to that strike.

I'm getting strike excited. This is how I've been in my mind since September is just how do we make a strike happen? Hell yeah, hell yeah. Yeah, let's talk about like what the sort of lead-up stuff to the action were. And let's talk about like, yeah, what expanding was like. Yeah, Abby, do you want to talk about the lead-up? Yeah, so since we unionized last May, we've had multiple staged walkouts in September of last year.

One of our union reps at the Harvard Square location was unjustly fired. So we did a walkout over her termination. We did a walkout in January of this. past year after Blue Bottle completely refused to negotiate with us over the renovation of the Prudential Center. And a lot of employees we're going to be losing out on almost $8 in tips an hour. Which is just hundreds of dollars a month. And the company was like, oh, well, we bargained to an impasse. So we're just going to do whatever we want. We were like, okay, well, that's not, that's not how this works. No. Yeah. And then in May of this year, we did another walkout when

They made the same argument that we bargained towards impasse when they tried to install security cameras. For anybody that's wondering, no, the cafes in Boston did not have cameras in them for the entire time that we were organizing or unionized until we began negotiating the installation of cameras as part of our contract. When they felt like they were done talking about cameras with us, they declared impasse, which they can't do because we were negotiating it as part of the contract. So they would have had to get to an impasse on the entire contract. before doing it. Yeah. And their lawyer basically said, well, we weren't getting anywhere with that.

So we're going to do it anyways. Oh, God. Labor law is so fun because it's like, like every boss breaks like 100 million labor laws a second and then kind of nothing happens unless you force it to. It's just, speaking of breaking weird labor laws, since we unionized one nice thing that has happened

was until May of this year, they were negotiating over serious discipline, so final written warnings or terminations with us. In effect, what this means is that they would sit down with us and just talk about why they felt like terminating someone was justified until they said we're not going to do anything else aside from fire them. But because of an NLRB ruling with Starbucks at the end of April, their lawyer said that they were done with that

and they felt that they had no legal obligation to continue doing it. oh fun yeah which is a break from past practice and we have in writing them committing to negotiating over serious discipline with us so less than a week after they say we're not going to bargain over discipline with you anymore uh they fire one co-worker of ours and our store immediately walked out over it hell yeah hell yeah i continue to be proud of that walkout specifically because it wasn't planned and because it was over something that is pretty technical labor law wise just the fact that they didn't negotiate over the termination. That's wrong.

That's like, girl who's read a bunch of weird labor history, this thing feels like a thing for a fucking weird labor history. The thing it reminds me of is, there was this thing in, I think it was Zerogora in Spain, like the 20s and 30s where it was like this hyperbillotid labor, like union like labor town. But they had a whole thing where they refused to strike over like improving economic conditions because they were like,

this is bourgeois reformism and they would oddly strike over political stuff. Hell yeah. But if you arrested, like, one person, like the whole fucking city would go out. It's like this rule. Yeah, no, we could just call us. We can just fucking instantly get a fucking walk out to happen over just like, over like them fucking with like kind of tactical labor stuff like this rocks. We love to see it.

Yeah, I was on the floor that day that our co-worker was fired. And I remember I went on my 10 minute break after she was fired. And there's like a pond behind our store. And I was literally throwing rocks. the pond and I was like, this sucks so bad and I'm so angry. And then I was like, wait, we're unionized. I was like, wait a minute. We had a union. And I go back into the store and I was like, hey, guys, if we don't walk out right now, then what is the point? And everyone was like, yeah, actually, if we don't walk out right now, what is the point? Hell yeah, hell yeah. And then we all

walked out. And it was, it was really beautiful, actually. That's so sick. That's so beautiful. I don't know there's some kind of metaphor for like you walking in being like the first rip the rock hitting the pond and the first ripples going out and the whole thing doing the strike but like that's i don't know that's gorgeous i love it that fucking rules congratulations hell yeah one of my favorite things to say is that union is friendship and friendship is unions and when your friend gets fired you should be able to walk out yeah yeah just fuck that like like seriously yeah yeah and On the whole, we've had a, I think, pretty successful year,

especially because I want to stress this, we're independent. So for all the walkouts that we've done, we've been able to replace the wages of baristas. Oh, that's really sick. If anybody listening to this wants to help us be able to do more walkouts, you can go to tinyurl.com forward slash BBIU dash strike. We'll be in the description. Hell yeah.

Because at this point, the company has realized that they can't break our solidarity in any meaningful way by resorting to scare tactics or delaying. And so now they've just resorted to straight up firing people because it's kind of like a break glass here in case of emergency thing where they're like, we're all out of ideas, what do we do? Yeah, it's just trying to fire everyone.

And that's what they've done. Yeah. Most recently, all the stores in both Boston and the East Bay area went on a four-day strike this November because the company illegally fired Abby executive board member named Nora and an organized

of ours in the East Bay named Ashley, for all incredibly petty reasons, I don't know if you want to speak more to why you were fired, Abby. Yeah, so on the record, I was fired because I wore green pants. What? I wore green pants like three weeks prior to me being fired. And let me tell you, there's nothing worse than waking up at 4.30 to go to your opening shift at your stupid cafe job to then clock in and be immediately hit with separation forms because you wore green pants three weeks ago. What? You must understand what a serious infraction it is to wear green pants, of course. I mean, clearly, the green pants that I've been wearing for the better part of two years, yeah.

Firing Abby was generous, actually. She should have been put to death for the crime of wearing green pants, of course. Most likely. This is some, like, this is some, like, fucking medieval, like, yeah, you pissed off the monarch by, like, you wore a color of pants. that was like unfavorable to the eye of the king and now he's like having you drawn in quarter like what is this bullshit like yep i wore green pants in front of my manager therefore i should not be able to make my rent yeah it's absolute gibberish that that might be the all-time dumbest firing reason i've ever heard like what is oh yeah it's just so egregious because the managers

know that i have a great rapport with all my co-workers i'm friends with all of my co-workers and they were like, hmm, how can we, you know, make one of our longstanding employees who is good at their job, you know, get fired? So, green pants was the reasoning. Which, and just like, the idea of your employer being able to control what color of pants you wear is, like, is a thing that just on a fundamental level would not be accepted with any other kind of authority that's, everybody immediately recognizes, wait, what the fuck, that's completely unhinged. Why should someone have the ability to tell you, like,

no, you have to wear this color pants or you can't pay your rent and you can't eat? Oh, yeah. No. And this is kind of the despotism of management that we were just talking about, isn't it? Yeah. And this is the thing that in bargaining sessions for a contract, their side is very interested in maintaining. We've said multiple times that we want a better just code policy, or at the very least, we don't want to waive our right to be able to wear union memorabilia on the floor. Uh-huh. And because he doesn't have any better ideas, their lawyer can only think to shoot that down

by talking about how he doesn't, you know, wear his sexuality on his shirt or... What? Yeah, yeah. Because he was like, why don't you want to be able to waive your right to wear union memorabilia on the floor? And we said,

we want to be able to show pride that we are unionized and we want to be able to have more freedom for expression. Uh-huh. Because it's despotic to be able to have that level of control over what somebody does. Yeah. And then he said,

you know, well, I don't wear my sexuality on my shirt and then realized that it was maybe inappropriate to say that. So then he talked about how he doesn't wear his daughters on his shirt, which it's a more convoluted point. Yeah. What? Well, because he's proud of his kids, I guess. What are we doing here?

Come on. We've got to have better arguments to this. Like, oh. No, this guy is really full of bad arguments. If you, yeah, if you want to hear bad arguments. arguments you should sit on on the bargaining session where their lawyer goes on kind of incomprehensible tirades about how the free market in the aggregate will make sure that the best person will get promoted over time or that the company will become more profitable

or run with the most efficiency as an enterprise because anything else would be illogical because they wouldn't produce more profit. But what does that have to do with labor? Yeah. There's actually, this is, okay, so when I know who's a lawyer once told me that like This is not like a leftist. This is just like, she's just like a corporate lawyer once told me that this, like the actual secret basis that doesn't exist of all corporate law is that there is actually nothing in the law that says a company has to make more money or that they even have the right to make money.

Like that doesn't exist. Like that's not a, that's not a thing. Like there's no, you don't actually have a legal right to make more money. Like you simply don't. That's just, that's not how this works. May 24th, 1990, a pipe bomb explodes in the front seat of environmental activist Judy Berry's car. I knew it was a bomb the second that it exploded. I felt it ripped through me with just a force more powerful and terrible than anything that I could describe.

In season two of Rip Current, we ask, who tried to kill Judy Barry and why? She received death threats before the bombing. She received more threats after the bombing. The man and woman who were heard had planned to lead a summer of militant protest against logging practices in Northern California. They were climbing trees and they were sabotaging logging equipment in the woods. The timber industry, I mean, it was the number one industry in the area, but more than it was the culture. It was the way of life. I think that this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our movement.

Episodes of Rip Current Season 2 are available now. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Pie. or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, Dr. Lori Santos from the Happiness Lab here. It's the season of giving, which is why my podcast is partnering with Give Directly, a nonprofit that provides people in extreme poverty with the cash they need. This year, we're taking part in the Pods Fight Poverty campaign. And it's not just the Happiness Lab.

Some of my favorite podcasters are also taking part. Think Jay Shetty from On Purpose, Dan Harris from 10% Happier, and Dave Desteno from How God Works and more. Our goal this year is to raise $1 million, which will help over 700 families in Rwanda living in extreme poverty. Here's how it works. You donate to give directly, and they put that cash directly into the hands of families in need,

because those families know best what they need, whether it's buying livestock to fertilize their farm, paying school fees, or starting a small business. With that support, families can invest in their future and build lasting change. So join me and your favorite podcasters in the PODS Fight Poverty campaign. Head to GiveDirectly.org slash happiness lab to learn more and make a contribution. And if you're a first-time donor, giving multiplier will even match your gift.

That's give directly.org slash happiness lab to donate. Hey, I'm Kelly. And some of you may know me as Laura Winslow. And I'm Telma, also known as Aunt Rachel. If those names ring a bell, then you probably are familiar with the show that we were both on back in the 90s called Family. Matters. Kelly and I have done a lot of things and played a lot of roles over the years, but both of us are just so proud to have been part of Family Matters. Did you know that we were one of the longest running sitcoms with the black cast? When we were making the show,

there were so many moments filled the joy and laughter and cut up that I will never forget. Oh, girl, you got that right. The look that you all give me is so black. All black people know about the look. On each episode of Welcome to the Family, we'll share personal reflections about making the show. Yeah, we'll even bring in part of the cast and some other special guests to join in the fun and spill some tea. Listen to Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Decoding Women's Health. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Pointer, chair of Women's Health and Gynecology at the Atria Health Institute in New York City. On this show, I'll be talking to top

researchers and top clinicians asking them your burning questions and bringing that information about women's health and midlife directly to you. A hundred percent of women go through menopause. It can be such a struggle for our quality of life, but even if it's natural, why should we suffer through it? The types of symptoms that people talk about is forgetting everything. I never used to forget things. They're concerned that one, they have dementia, and the other one is, do I have ADHD. There is unprecedented promise with regard to cannabis and cannabinoids, to sleep better, to have less pain, to have better mood, and also to have better day-to-day life. Listen to Decoding Women's Health with Dr. Elizabeth Pointer on the IHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening now. The thing it reminds me of is the anthropologist David Graber, wrote about, I think you might have been quoting someone else, but I can't remember who was quoting, but he writes about how the relationship between sort of eloquence and violence, where the less you have, and this isn't somewhere in the utopia of rules, he writes about how, you know, people who have access to violence to compel people to do something, you don't even have to speak the same language as someone, right? You can just point a gun at them and, you know, they have to obey you because, you know, they have force, right? But the less

ability you have to actually use force to get someone to do something, right? So if you're a village chief in, there's actually a lot of indigenous tribes that were like this, but you know, you're in like sort of the northeast and you don't actually have the ability to compel people to do things. So if you want people to go work in the morning, you have to like get up and make a giant show of like, oh, I'm getting up to work in the morning. Everyone follow me. Wow, look at how hard I'm working. And you have to like convince them through oratory and you know this this is like why all these people when when europeans run into them everyone is like holy shit these are like these are the best orders of ever encountered because they have to be right but the more power you have the less

eloquence you have to have which i think it's like you know this is like a donald trump thing right it's like yeah what once you've reached this point in the process you know you can just compel people to do things through violence you can just like talk like a fourth grader and it's fine and it doesn't matter because you just have violence and that's what this reminds me of of like Oh, we're the company. Like, we have, like, we're fucking owned by Nestle. We have all this money. We don't have to make compelling arguments.

We just have to, like, have power. Yeah, I mean, pretty much. Personally, it reads to me as, like, a way to delay actually talking about any of our demands at the table. Because if you just eat up all the time, then there's no time to talk. Yeah, yeah. But that's also really beautiful to think about, from a more abstract sense. Yeah. Well, also, just companies love fucking with negotiations.

It's awful. I, how, okay, I should just start asking everyone who does negotiations about this, but on average, how late are you rather managers to show up to meetings? I would say that actually both sides are equally late. Well, to the negotiations at least. Just because getting around the city is so difficult. Oh, oh, so that's like a transit thing, not like a, um... Wait, no, no, we're not deliberately showing up, Lee, as far as I know.

Yeah, you're just... We just can't get in traffic. Yeah. But there shouldn't they already just be there? Oh, yeah, well, because this is something that's actually been a delay tactic for them is they insist that we need to split the cost equally of a bargaining space. What? What? And again, we're independent, so they know that we can't on a regular basis commit to that.

So if you want to donate to our unions, that way we can pay to sit down in front of these people. That's completely on it. Having to have the union pay, I've never heard of that before. That's completely deranged. That's what? And we've even waived our right to meet in a neutral space. So we've asked if they would be willing to meet in the office of their legal representation or if they'd be willing to meet in the office of our legal representation.

And they've said no to both because supposedly, despite being the second largest union avoidance firm in the world, They've said that their office doesn't have adequate space to hold us. But then rental space in the city is so fucking expensive that there's no feasible way to rent a space for eight hours for two days, you know, once a month. Yeah. Which is meant that we've ended up in some strange places. So college conference rooms, city hall, we work. What? Yeah.

We work? I know. It's pretty dark. This is the most. deeply unsurious company I have ever encountered. There's all kinds of things like that that they've employed in the past year

to attempt us making significant progress with negotiating. And it wasn't until November this year that they finally gave us a counter on economics after we told them we would file a bad faith bargaining charge if they didn't.

Hell yeah. Do you want to guess what their counter? So for reference, our union's requesting $30 an hour Fabrizas, because that's a living wage, according to the MIT living wage calculator. Do you want to guess what Blue Bottle said they would give us? 18? Um, no.

Well, actually, strangely, yes. They said, right now we make 18 an hour. But they said they'll keep it the same and they want to retain the rate to change it whenever they want. They're making a floor. They're committing to a floor that they, I then tried to ask if they've ever in their history decreased wages. Uh-huh.

And they're like, no, I don't see why we would ever do that. And I'm like, oh, so then this floor is bullshit, actually. Their baseline for negotiations is our starting position is nothing. Yeah. And this is a year after negotiating with them so far. Yeah. It's like, okay. Like, I mean, at that point, it's like, yeah, I don't know.

Like, fuck it. Our starting position is we should have your house. Like, this is like, this is like equally, like, come on. Like, you having their house is a more reasonable demand than our basic negotiating position is nothing? Like, what are we doing here? Oh. No idea. Just, God. Yeah, I mean, insert obligatory line here about how after you win an election, the most common way for you need to fail is bargaining the first contracting companies know this, they will just do bullshit for several years to attempt to not have you get a contract. It sucks. Yeah. Yeah. Fuck them.

It's their whole strategy. I mean, the whole, like, union avoidance of it all, is they're just trying to, like wait us out and then fire people who are involved and just like in their words like let turn over do its natural work but it's like isn't this specialty coffee don't you want people who are good at their jobs i've watched some of my new co-workers pull a shot that i wouldn't feed to a dog like i've seen her manager do the same oh absolutely why look you can't expect managers to know how to do things that's not their job my manager let me tell you I used to have to open with her like three times a week, and she has this very beautiful habit of as she's dialing espresso, and also she does this while she's counting cash. She will have her phone open on TikTok and then scroll through.

I have this one horrific memory. It was 6 a.m. And she was going through an entire TikTok story time series for 45 minutes. And the whole story time was going on. And every time it was an introduction of like, I don't even remember what it was about. I think it was like, she was like, oh, this is my story. being like a mob boss's wife and I had to listen to that for

45 minutes while opening. Yeah, I think you should legally be allowed to have her car. I think I should have her house, probably. Yeah, that too, yes. Our starting demand is the more you, every time you piss us off, we get

another one of your houses. For every TikTok watched on the clock, that's a dollar towards me per hour. Yeah. What are we doing here? by Nestle, but I don't think that there's enough money in the world that would be able to give you that, Abby. I'm so sorry. I know. I don't think I'll

ever receive fair compensation. You'd really piss off the modern monetary theory people because they'd be like, no, even we can't account for this. No one can account for the emotional damage. We ran out of data in our Federal Reserve data base.

Oh, God. To recap, so in the past year, we've done multiple walkouts, unionized four locations in the East Bay Area, and then after Abbey was fired for bullshit reasons, along with two other organizers, we went on a four-day strike, which included both cities,

and we've done this entirely as an independent union, against a company that is owned by Nestle. Yeah. And interestingly, just because I'd be remiss to not mention this, the day that we ended our strike, there was an article published in Reuters, which was the most vibe-based reporting that I've ever seen, where it said

Nestle explores sale of blue bottle coffee sources say where there's three unnamed sources incredible that all say that Nestle is considering or looking into selling blue bottle coffee but interestingly says here quote one source said Nestle could decide to sell

the cafes but retain the brand's intellectual property to continue selling the products and quote what are we doing here this is like yeah yeah I mean it's interesting as a tell because personally I think it's just a scare tactic.

Yeah, yeah. Like, I could consider walking into traffic. I could be looking into my options for how fast a car would hit me. But that doesn't mean anything. Union considering expropriating the mansions of Leslie CEOs, like, we're in an exploratory committee.

The sources say? Yeah, I don't think they'd publish that in writers, but it's interesting that they would even say that because, like, the entire value that Blue Bottle offers Nestle is to be able to put the brand onto, you know, Nespressopods or whatever. And also just very weird timing with the strike ending the same day it comes out. Yep, yep, yep.

They are so scared. They really are. They are scared shitless and they don't know what to do about it. And they're breaking glass left and right trying to maintain power. But it's like Alex said earlier, like the solidarity that we have between our coworkers, it just cannot be broken by management. And even after they fired me and two of our other organizers, people still went out on the picket line.

We kept five out of the six cafes closed in Boston, and the only reason one of them could stay open is because all of the managers banded together to keep the Prudential Center open. I would hate to know. I was going to say, I don't think a single latte went out correctly that day, but hey, you know, at least they could still collect they're $9 per latte, so.

If you got food poisoning on the dates of the strike for going to the getting served manager coffee. If you had a bad experience during the strike at the Prudential Center, just know that that was not Union-made coffee, and we would never do that to you. May 24th, 1990, a pipe bomb, explodes in the front seat of environmental activist Judy Barry's car. I knew it was a bomb the second that it exploded.

I felt it ripped through me with just a force more powerful and terrible than anything that I could describe. In season two of Rip Current, we ask, who tried to kill Judy Barry and why? She received death threats before the bombing. She received more threats after the bombing. The man and woman who were heard had planned to lead a summer of militant protest against logging practices in Northern California. They were climbing trees and they were sabotaging logging equipment in the woods.

The timber industry, I mean, it was the number one industry in the area, but more than it was the culture. It was the way of life. I think that this is a deliberate attempt to sabotage our movement. Episodes of Rip Current Season 2 are available now. Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, Dr. Lori Santos from the Happiness Lab here. It's the season of giving, which is why my podcast is partnering with Give Directly,

a nonprofit that provides people in extreme poverty with the cash they need. This year, we're taking part in the Pods Fight Poverty campaign. And it's not just the Happiness Lab. Some of my favorite podcasters are also taking part. Think Jay Shetty from On Purpose, Dan Harris from 10% Happier, and Dave Desteno from How God Works, and more. Our goal this year is to raise $1 million, which will help over 700 families in Rwanda living in extreme poverty.

Here's how it works. You donate to give directly, and they put that cash directly into the hands of families in need, because those families know best what they need, whether it's buying livestock to fertilize their farm, paying school fees, or starting a small business. With that support,

families can invest in their future and build lasting change. So join me and your favorite podcasters in the Pods Fight Poverty campaign. Head to give directly.org slash happiness lab to learn more and make a contribution. And if you're a first-time donor, giving multiplier will even match your gift. That's give directly.org slash happiness lab to donate. Hey, I'm Kelly, and some of you may know me as Laura Winslow. And I'm Telma, also known as Aunt Rachel.

If those names ring a bell, then you probably are familiar with the show that we were both on back in the 90s called Family Matters. Kelly and I have done a lot of things and played a lot of roles over the years. But both of us are just so proud to have been part of Family Matters. Did you know that we were one of the longest running sitcoms with the black cast? When we were making the show, there were so many moments filled the joy and laughter and cut up that I will never forget. Oh, girl, you got that right. The look that you all give me is so black. All black people know about the look. On each episode of Welcome to the Family, we'll share personal reflections about making the show.

Yeah, we'll even bring in part of the cast and some other special guests to join in the fun and spill some tea. Listen to Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Lama is a spirit. It's not just a city. I didn't really have an interest of being on air. I kind of was up there to just try and infiltrate the building. It's where Kronk was born in a club in the West End. Four world star.

It was 5.59. Where a tiny bar birthed a generation of rap stars, where preachers go viral. And students at the HBCU turned heartbreak in the rest. resurrection. How do you get people to believe in something that's dead? Well, Dream was brought Hollywood to the South, and hustlers bring their visions to create black wealth. Nobody's rushing into relationships with you. Where are you from? They want to look in the eye. Where the future is nostalgia. I'm talking to chat, GPT. She's like, you really the first lady to have a gayfield girl's tape in Atlanta, Georgia. Like, that's what

separates you from a lot of people. And I'm like, oh what? You're right. Atlanta doesn't wait for permission. It builds its own spotlight. I'm big rude. Let us guide you. through the stories behind Atlanta's most iconic moments. Listen to Atlanta is on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I think it's really beautiful that, yeah, y'all just kept fucking doing this, even though they're just doing this bullshit constantly. And it's like, no, we're just going to keep fighting them.

And they're going to get so scared that they're leaking to the press that we're thinking about selling the thing. Like, I just, we're a lot further along than I thought we would ever get. I thought they were going to fire us the day after we did the first walkout last year, which is, you know, I thought all the more reason to try then. Yeah. But really, it's not tough for people that we work with to realize that they're getting a bad deal. And that the reason that the job sucks is because they don't get paid enough to live in the city.

Like, I think most baristas at Bluebottle see something like, 60% of their income going towards rent because... Jesus! Yeah, we did a survey on this. Let me double check to make sure that I have the facts right. But yeah, this is from, you know, March. So it's a little bit old data. We'll do another survey soon.

But most Blue Bottle baristas are rent burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on rent. The median rent paid by Blue Bottle employees being $1,045, which is the equivalent of 150 Noralene-style ice coffees that it's one of the best-selling drinks they have. Christ. Yeah, no, I know. For 150 NOLUS, you two can pay the median rent by a, paid by a barista. Oh, my God. And then on average, it's, sorry, 46% of their income going towards rent, with roughly a third of baristas paying over 60%. Oh, my God.

We told all these facts to their lawyer at a bargaining session, and he just said that maybe the reason that we were all struggling to make ends meet was because we were paying for too much. many streaming services. Yeah, I know. Like, it's an entirely... He knows this bullshit. Did they just get like a right-way shit poster to be their lawyer? Like, is this just like,

is this like the fail-sun clone of Rudy Giuliani? Like, is this base going to start melting off? What are we doing here? Like, come on. I wish I could tell you. I don't know what their strategy with saying obviously false things is, but they love to do it. It's so great.

You know, okay, fuck it. I'm going to read this quote. I was going to use this for a different episode and I did it. So, all right, fuck it. This is, I'm going to read this line from Dan Olson's documentary in search of Flat Earth, which is like probably the best thing that's ever been done about Flat Earth. Because they believe that power belongs to those with the greatest will to take it. And what greater sign of will than the ability to overwrite the truth?

Their will is a hammer they are using to beat reality into a show. shape of their choosing. A simple world where reality is exactly what it looks like through their eyes, devoid of complexity, devoid of change, where they are right and their enemies are silent. They are trying to build a flat earth. That's just this shit. They're just like, no, fuck you. We can say whatever the fuck we want because we take the way, because this is the expression of just power, even though we know that we're lying and you know that you're lying. I mean, if you want to talk about expression of power, you should read their management's rights clause. Sorry, their so-called management's rights clause.

Oh, God. Let me see if I can pull that up. So just to clarify, so management's rights is a clause that can be found in some union contracts because of collaborationists within unions in the 50s deciding that they actually didn't want to go for complete work or control of the means of production. They just wanted to collaborate with management in order to get a better. deal for wages. I'm not going to comment on the history of that, but that's why they feel like they can include this in negotiations right now. We haven't agreed to any management's rights, but, quote, is agreed that the management of the company's business and the direction of its

working forces are vested exclusively in the company and that the company retains all rights that had before the execution of this agreement unless a rate is clearly contracted away in this agreement by language that is specific and unambiguous. These retained company rights include, but are not limited to the following examples. The right to direct and supervise the work of its employees, the right to hire, promote, demote, transfer, and to discipline or discharge employees, the right to create or eliminate jobs, and to determine wage rates for newly created or materially modified jobs, the right to determine training requirements and provide training to employees, the right to uniform and attire standards, the right to plan, direct,

and control operations, the right to determine products to be sold, services, and products to be procured, used, and or distributed, the right to determine the type and quantity of machine's equipment, location of cafes, the right to determine the amount and quality of work needed, the right to determine schedules of cafe operations, the right to determine the number of employees needed, the right to determine the work schedule of employees, the right to lay off employees or relieve employees from work because of lack of work, the right to discontinue or introduce new or improved methods, operating practices, and cafes, the right to change the content of jobs and the qualification for such jobs, and the right to establish,

modify, and enforce work rules of conduct or policies and discipline employees who violate such rules or policies, the right to establish, modify. Oh, Jesus Christ. I'm losing my... And force. I haven't read this in a while, and I forgot how bad it is. Wow.

Oh, God. Because basically what they're saying is, we want to be able to control everything that you do, and this is our... They never say where they believe this right comes from. They don't make, like, an argument from naturalism where, like, we are vested by the universal power of management to be able to do this. They don't make any historical argument for it where,

oh, this is, you know, because of the contracts that have been negotiated. since the 50s, something that's fairly standard, and we think that we have the right to because of, like, long-standing precedent, they just think that they should be able to control fucking everything. Yeah. Which is not unsurprising for Nestle. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, and I think there's a lot of very, very abstract theoretical debate you run into, if you're, like, instead of doing shit, you're, like, in theory circles about, like, oh, is, like, is capital its own autonomous entity, or is it, like, a thing that's, like, constantly in, like, relation to like the actions of workers and it's like okay read something like this and it's like oh no

they are so worried that they're going to have to react to what their workers are doing that they and they are already doing this right like this is you know you know this goes back to the whole like we're leaking to the media we're going to sell the company thing that they're doing where it's like no actually like these people are so not like easily but if you are organized at all

it becomes so clear to them that they actually oh no wait hold on they're responding to us like they're not just purely the only thing they gets to like drive history forward and decide literally everything about your life the moment you like try to clove it away from them

they see how fragile it is and they're like no no no no actually we got to spell out the fact that we get to fucking dress you and whatever clothes we want you to wear and it's like okay this is like a thing that only exists if you do not resist them at all but like no if you if you fucking fight them. They have to fucking write all this shit down that they think they've always

been able to do. And it's ridiculous. And to hear it all in a bullet form, like in literally just a bullet list, like every single aspect of my life and everything that I've ever loved or thought was important to me in a list of what they think they can control. It's just crazy. And then we have to go back and say, okay, well, do you see how off base you are? Yeah. And then they make us sound like the crazy ones for wanting to live a good life and be able to, like, you know, make ends meet. Pay less than 60% of our income towards rent. Yeah.

Yeah. Take a vacation, maybe. Yeah. One other thing that I think is a great point about how it's actually capital responding to the organization of barista's people, workers, whatever, is they haven't done it recently, but last summer, they sent a very long-winded and angry email about all the bargaining updates and press that the union was getting. They're so mad at me that I'm good at my job.

And then this past summer, after we did two walkouts in fairly quick succession in response to two different things, they attempted to accuse us of intermittent striking just because they were so scared. They didn't know what else to do to try and be like, you didn't own me. I'm not mad. Please don't put in the news that I'm mad. Their lawyer even said in a bargaining session later, later on, that he had a less than 75% chance of ever winning that argument at the board.

Oh, my God. But they were just so mad that we walked out twice in May that they tried to claim that it was unprotected, but that they were being benevolent by not disciplining anyone for it. Oh, my God. And they haven't really given much of a response to our multi-day strike yet, aside from their lawyer emailing us earlier this week to ask us for our entire legal justification for why the terminations of Abby, Nora, and Ashley were illegal, and what legal justification do we have to say that they're negotiating a contract in bad faith? Which is like the NLRA? Yeah. Yeah.

Like, what are we doing here? Oh, God. Yeah, so what's coming up next for you all? What's the next stage. If you or anybody that you know either works at a blue bottle or wants to apply to a blue bottle to help organize it, please reach out to us by email at blue bottle union at gmail.com. If you want to support our independent unionism and help us remain independent and be able to go on multiple day strikes, which clearly piss off our Nestle overlords, you can donate to us at tinyurl.com forward slash bbIU dash strike, unless or until we have a contract or they reinstate Abby Nora, Ashley, and fingers crossed, hopefully not myself.

We're calling on a boycott of all blue bottle coffee products. I have no idea what the overlap between it could happen here. Listeners and Blue Bottle customers is. You'd be surprised. But, no, I'm sure. There's a lot of them out there. I don't know.

Judging by the shit I have heard for our listeners, I love you all. Some of you are on some wild shit and some of you are not the people you would expect to be. So... Yeah, so don't buy BlueBottle. If some of the things that we've said about the bargaining sessions sounds too absurd to be true to you, then you can go to bluebottle union.org and under the tab for baristas, you can read every bargaining update where we publish all of the proposals that the company has given us so far.

You can read the shit that they make us read in the bargaining sessions. Yeah, so that's what's next in the next month or so. There's other things that we're working on that we can't talk about yet. Hell yeah, hell yeah. Love this. I'm trying so hard not to just read half the end or speech. Authority is the mask of fear. Tyranny is brittle. If there ever were a time to read it, there's no time like the present. You know what, fuck it. We're just, we're doing it. We're doing it.

The imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks. It leaks. authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this. The day will come when all of these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance, will have flooded the banks of the empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try. And that's my message to you all. You can fight your own bosses too and you can beat them and you can watch them running around in terror like fucking chickens with their head cut off. you can get shit from them that they never would have wanted to give you in the first place. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions.

Thanks for listening. Greatness doesn't just show up. It's built. One shot, one choice, one moment at a time. From NBA champion Stefan Curry comes Shot Ready, a powerful never-before-seen look at the mindset that changed the game. I fell in love with the grind. You have to find joy in the work you do when no one else is around. Success is not an accident.

I'm passing the ball to you. Let's go. Steph Curry redefined basketball. Now he's rewriting what it means to succeed. Shot Ready isn't just a memoir. It's a playbook for anyone chasing. their potential. Discover stories, strategies, and over 100 never-before-seen photos. Order shot-ready now at stephen currybook.com. Don't miss Stephen Curry's New York Times bestseller,

shot ready, available now. Michael Lewis here. My best-selling book, The Big Short, tells the story of the build-up and burst of the U.S. housing market back in 2008. A decade ago, the Big Short was made into an Academy award-winning movie. Now I'm bringing it to you for the first time as an audiobook narrated by yours truly. The Big Short Story, what it means to bet against the market,

and who really pays for an unchecked financial system, is as relevant today as it's ever been. Get the Big Short now at Pushkin.fm. slash audiobooks, or wherever audiobooks are sold. Atlanta is a spirit. It's not just a city. It's where Cronk was born in a club in the West End.

Before World Star, it was 559, where preachers go viral, and students at the HBCU turned heartbreak into resurrection, where Dreamers brought Hollywood to the South, and hustlers bring their visions to create black wealth. Nobody's rushing into relationships with you. I'm Big Rube. Listen to Atlanta is on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

You know the shade is always Shadiest right here. Season 6 of the podcast Reasonably Shady with Giselle Bryan and Robin Dixon is here dropping every Monday. As two of the founding members of the Real Housewives Potomac were giving you all the laughs, drama, and reality news you can handle. And you know we don't hold back. So come be reasonable or shady with us each and every Monday. Listen to Reasonably Shady from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.