Dear Friends and Family, Petition Signers and Supporters, This is Emma with an urgent update on the situation at Peet's Sheffield in Chicago, IL. Peet's corporate, via district manager Glenn Johnson, just aggressively stepped up their efforts to suppress the worker voice. Peet's is threatening to fire one of their best employees in retaliation for the paper petition I circulated at the Chicago store a few weeks ago, and for the online version of that petition (bit.ly/standwithemma), which is a growing public embarrassment to the company. Those of you who signed the paper petition at the Sheffield store on August 30th may recall that Candice Spatz, below, was working that morning.
Candice is being disciplined for "allowing [me] to solicit customers and disrupt business." Peet's cannot stop the growing power of the online petition, but they have proven that they can and will retaliate against individual employees who stand with me. Last Friday, district manager Glenn Johnson sat Candice down in Peet's back room and harshly reprimanded her for sloppiness, laziness and lack of leadership. He delivered Candice not 1 but 2 write-ups for "behavioral issues," and the ominous warning that one more "incident" could result in her termination. Only one other employee at Peet's Sheffield in the last 5 years has been written up for "behavioral issues." After you call, please share your experience with us, at peetsworkersgroup@gmail.com. We want to know if your call got through, if Glenn was receptive to your message, and if he provided you with any assurance that his behavior would change. We are appalled at Peet's attempts to silence employee voices, and we are offended by Glenn Johnson's behavior. The only way to stop a bully is by standing up and refusing to be bullied. Call Glenn Johnson at (510) 418-9322, or email him at gjohnson@peets.com. Tell him he must treat Candice, and all Peet's employees, with fairness and respect. Tell him to retract all disciplinary measures against Candice, and promise that there will be no more retaliation.