Strike averted, again: ReAnimator Coffee’s union and owners reach a tentative contract

For the second time in two weeks, one of Philly’s independently owned coffee shops has reached a contract deal with its union — averting a strike.

ReAnimator Coffee owners and workers settled a tentative contract Thursday evening after a nine-hour bargaining session. The majority of ReAnimator’s union members authorized a strike earlier this week.

According to the Philadelphia Joint Board Workers United Instagram, the tentative contract includes a $3 across-the-board increase to minimum hourly rates, an expanded health-care stipend for full-timers, 4% yearly pay increases, increased paid time off, and a payout policy for unused paid time off.

Local 80 — the Philly food-service union that represents ReAnimator’s union as well as those at Elixr, Ultimo, and Vibrant Coffee Roasters — thanked both parties involved on Instagram Friday morning.

“Local 80 applauds the hard work and dedication of its Bargaining Committee as well as the willingness of ReAnimator owners to settle a first contract that will go leaps and bounds in transforming industry standards,” the post read. “Negotiations are ongoing with Ultimo Coffee, and set to begin in late December with Vibrant Coffee, where Local 80 is confident that employers will look to Elixr and ReAnimator as new standard-bearer for a fair contract that improves the lives of its workers.”

“We’re really happy to have reached a tentative agreement on a contract with our staff, and we’re excited to continue working together into the future,” said ReAnimator principal owner Mark Capriotti in a statement Friday.

Reached by phone Friday, ReAnimator baristas Frances Cordelia Beaver and Alex Profit — the union’s point people for its monthslong negotiations — said they entered the session with the same mantra: “Contract day.”

As compared to other sessions, which veered into “emotional discourse or rhetoric,” this one was laser-focused on numbers, Beaver said. Numerous offers and counteroffers were traded until ReAnimator’s owners offered the same package that Elixr’s union agreed to earlier this month. It was less than the union wanted.

“When you’re negotiating, you’re both keeping in one hand an idea of the labor movement moving forward and what you can achieve with unions ... and the other side is what does this mean materially for us, our workers, right now,” said Beaver.

ReAnimator workers considered the proposal, as well as the logistics and implications of a strike.

“[A strike is] a lot of work,” Beaver said. “It’s more fight, and we’ve been [organizing] for over a year. It’s a lot of stress and emotion.” They decided to counter, finessing a one-time signing bonus into a modest wage increase instead.

After another counteroffer, a deal was struck. Beaver and Profit, armed with lipstick for this very moment, signed the tentative agreement and sealed it with a kiss. After signing, Capriotti picked up the document and pretended to kiss it as well.

“It was very adorable and honestly one of the most wholesome moments we’ve had,” Profit said, laughing.

Beaver said she was glad the monthslong negotiations ended on a high note. “We all have to work together,” she said.

ReAnimator has five locations in Philadelphia. Its union represents 26 employees. The union was formed in November 2022 and voluntarily recognized by ownership shortly after. That sparked employees at sister establishment eeva to unionize in early 2023; the Kensington pizzeria/bakery closed this fall, after co-owner Greg Dunn announced his departure.

While this agreement marks a major step for ReAnimator employees — who will vote on the four-year contract next week — it also notches a third contract for Local 80, which was officially minted in spring 2022. The first Local 80-represented contract was signed in May 2022 at Korshak Bagels, which closed earlier this year. The second was earlier this month at Elixr Coffee, an agreement which came just hours after the union announced its intent to strike if a deal was not reached.

“I know that we saw the movement that we did because of the strike threat,” said Philadelphia Joint Board employee and Local 80 negotiator Lily Fender. “It brings in an amount of pressure and power where suddenly the workers who are sitting at the bargaining table — their voices don’t need to be loud because the strength of the team altogether and the potential of the threat is so much louder.”

Wages were the biggest focus of this contract, Fender said. “Getting those base rates up as high as they could would be the most important [thing],” they said.

Base rates vs. guaranteed tipped rate — in which a company supplements the base rate if tips do not amount to a certain threshold — were one of the snags ReAnimator negotiations hit earlier this month. In a previous statement, Capriotti said that ReAnimator’s base rate is currently $10.75 per hour, but its guaranteed tipped rate is $17 per hour; the owners had proposed a $19 per hour guaranteed tipped rate in its Dec. 8 counteroffer.

Fender said that, historically, ReAnimator workers have cleared that hourly tipped-rate threshold thanks to customers’ tips, seldom requiring the company to contribute additional funds to the workers’ wages.

“What you have then is — if the wage was initially $10.75 and workers are often making over $20 in total, including tips — then you’ve got a customer base that’s actually paying more of the worker’s salary than the company itself. And that’s inexcusable,” Fender said.

Fender added that eliminating tipping altogether is a long-term project for Local 80, which is setting its sights next on negotiating a deal for workers at Ultimo.

“We’re coming for that contract very soon,” Fender said.