The Farragut location is the second cafe to file to unionize with UFCW Local 400
WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 22, 2022) – Today, workers at the La Colombe Coffee Roasters Farragut location in Washington, DC announced plans to unionize with United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400. This is the second cafe in the District to file to unionize after workers at the La Colombe Chinatown announced a union effort last week.
The workers organizing committee released the following statement regarding the effort:
“We, the workers of La Colombe Farragut, have joined our coworkers at Chinatown in the La Colombe Workers Union. We share their goals of making the world a better place through coffee and creating a safe, fair, and equitable workplace we can all be proud of.
“A majority of our cafe’s workers have signed cards authorizing the UFCW Local 400 to represent us for the purpose of collective bargaining. We call on management to voluntarily recognize our union, as well as that of our fellow employees at Chinatown. We have filed for a union election through the National Labor Relations Board. We look forward to joining the Chinatown cafe in negotiating a union contract to address our concerns and create a more positive workplace.”
The Farragut cafe is located at 1710 I (Eye) Street NW and is one of five La Colombe locations in the District of Columbia.
Today’s announcement follows shortly after more than 100 Starbucks locations staged a one-day strike last week as part of a nationwide push to unionize the coffee chain. Union organizing efforts are also sweeping through the DMV region, where in the last few months workers at Books-A-Million, MOM’s Organic Market, Union Kitchen, Politics and Prose, and Zen Leaf dispensary have all unionized, announced plans to unionize, or ratified their first union contracts.
The wave of unionizing workplaces is not limited to the DMV region. According to the NLRB, union elections filings in the first half of fiscal year 2022 are up 57% from the year before and approval of labor unions is at its highest point since 1965 according to a recent Gallup poll.
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United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400 is led by President Mark Federici and represents 35,000 members working in the grocery, retail, health care, food processing, service and other industries in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. www.ufcw400.org