Labor & Business

Seven Stars barista Izzie Cossey talks about unionization effort

“Currently we have three stores that are unionizing. We have Hope Street, Point Street and Broadway. We’re in the process of working towards getting our other two stores, Cranston and Rumford, unionized, and we’re working really hard to get our production facility to be in the same process….”

Rhode Island News: Seven Stars barista Izzie Cossey talks about unionization effort

June 15, 2022, 2:17 pm

By Steve Ahlquist

Employees at Seven Star Bakery announced yesterday that they are filing to to form a union. Today Uprise RI spoke to Izzie Cossey, a barista at the Hope Street location about the effort and the reasons for unionization.

Uprise RI: Can you tell me about the unionization effort?

Izzie Cossey: Currently we have three stores that are unionizing. We have Hope Street, Point Street and Broadway. We’re in the process of working towards getting our other two stores, Cranston and Rumford, unionized, and we’re working really hard to get our production facility to be in the same process. We submitted our union letters last Friday and we’re waiting to hear back from the owners. We’ve heard good things, but we still haven’t gotten a yes or no. It’s hard to tell which way they’re going to go.

Uprise RI: I’m not great on union law. I f the owners say yes, is that pretty much it or do you still have to vote?

Izzie Cossey: If they say yes, then we’re automatically like part of the union. We just skip straight to voting for a committee and the negotiation process. But if they say no, we’re already prepared and starting to file for election, which would be a couple weeks or months of us as employees voting to formalize our union.

Uprise RI: And you haven’t heard anything from the owners yet?

Izzie Cossey: One of the owners talked about how his dad was a union president. He sounded very understanding. But again, he’s not really giving a yes or no either way. So it’s hard to tell where he’s going to end up…

Uprise RI: Are there specific issues that drove your effort?

Izzie Cossey: Yeah. There have been a lot of little things and obviously it’s a little different across the stores, across production facility, but a big thing is right now we make nine, ten dollars an hour as baristas. Shift leads get a dollar more, but we rely heavily on tips from customers right now,. Tips are appreciated, but I don’t want to have to count on them. They took away the ability for raises and moving up within the company. So it’s a little bit of a dead end job. And we don’t get benefits as part-timers. It’s really hard to obtain a full-time status. That leaves a lot of us having to get our own healthcare benefits, and things like that. One of the like specific concerns is thet we have an on call day where from 6 to 9am, one of us is scheduled to be on call. We have to be ready to go in, but we’re not paid for those hours and we’re not paid for the day unless we go into work.

Uprise RI: Personally, I think on call is a complete scam.So you have scheduling issues…

Izzie Cossey: They’ll give you 30, 35 hours one week and then 20 hours the next week to kind of balance out and make sure you don’t get enough hours to qualify for benefits. That happens with most employees.

Uprise RI: A lot of places do that. I would’ve thought Seven Stars was better than that.

Izzie Cossey: We got new owners in the last couple years and they’ve really changed a lot of things beause they used to have raises, they used to have better pay. They took away 5% of our pay at the beginning of the pandemic and then a year later held a party and talked about how profits were up. But we haven’t seen any of the benefits from that.

Uprise RI: Nationally there’s a big effort towards unionization. Do you see selves situated in that wave of unionization?

Izzie Cossey: Absolutely, especially with places like Starbucks unionizing. It’s really easy to be like, “We’re part of that. We got that energy we can join in.” Which is why we’re also vouching for other local stores in the area to start the same process.

Uprise RI: What else what else occurs for you to talk about?

Izzie Cossey: Right now I am pushing to get all the coworkers at my current stores, making sure that they’re staying energized, making sure that we don’t let anyone from management try and convince us otherwise. I’m working hard to get the last two stores and the production facility. I really want the customers to continue to show their support to us, because if they’re not coming in and they’re not interacting with us, then there’s no point in fighting for this job.

Uprise RI: So you need customers to come in and be supportive.

Izzie Cossey: We don’t want them to boycott. We don’t want them to separate from the store. We want them to see what we’re doing and know that it’s benefiting them as well as us.

Uprise RI: And you also want them to tip well, when they do come in.

Izzie Cossey: That’s appreciated.

Uprise RI: What’s your favorite item over at Seven Stars?

Izzie Cossey: Foodwise I’m currently obsessed with the ham and cheese croissant. I don’t know if it’s because it’s new and flashy. Drinkwise I always get a nitro cold brew with maple syrup and oat milk.

Uprise RI: That sounds… Interesting. Thank you so much for your time.