[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":712},["ShallowReactive",2],{"item:\u002Fcafe-staffing\u002Fthe-worker-owned-coffee-cooperatives-of-baltimore":3,"platform:site":197,"more:\u002Fcafe-staffing\u002Fthe-worker-owned-coffee-cooperatives-of-baltimore":649},{"id":4,"title":5,"aiRevisedAt":6,"authors":7,"body":12,"canonical":118,"category":119,"categorySlugs":130,"cid":131,"cover":132,"description":138,"extension":139,"featured":140,"language":141,"meta":142,"navigation":143,"noindex":140,"ogImage":144,"path":145,"publishedAt":146,"readingMinutes":147,"recipe":118,"related":148,"revisedAt":118,"seo":182,"seoDescription":138,"seoTitle":5,"sortKey":118,"sources":183,"stem":187,"tagSlugs":188,"tags":190,"translations":193,"type":194,"url":195,"__hash__":196},"platformItems\u002Fplatform\u002Fitems\u002F53641.md","When Baristas Become Bosses: Inside Baltimore's Cooperative Coffee Scene","2026-10-20T11:21:15.000Z",[8],{"name":9,"slug":10,"role":11},"Parker Campbell","parker-campbell","author",{"type":13,"value":14,"toc":111},"minimark",[15,19,22,25,28,31,36,39,42,45,48,51,54,57,60,64,67,75,78,81,88,91,95,98,101,108],[16,17,18],"p",{},"The labor movement in coffee has gained real momentum across the United States. In 2021, employees at Starbucks stores in Buffalo helped set off a wave of unionization that has since reached every part of the industry—from large national chains to specialty pioneers to small neighborhood cafes.",[16,20,21],{},"As of now, over 500 Starbucks locations, representing close to 12,000 employees, have unionized. The achievements of Starbucks Workers United organizers have demonstrated that coffee shops can indeed operate under a different model—one that considers both the company's needs and those of its workforce.",[16,23,24],{},"The rising popularity of unions, particularly in food and beverage, has also encouraged fresh thinking about who owns a business. In coffee, a different structure is attracting attention: the worker-owned cooperative, meaning a company that is owned and managed by the people who work there.",[16,26,27],{},"Several notable coffee businesses have shifted away from conventional ownership in recent years—Gimme! Coffee in New York City became a cooperative in 2022—but Baltimore, Maryland, has emerged as a notable center for coffee worker cooperatives. In 2023, Common Ground Cafe joined their ranks when its employees came together to purchase the business after the owner shut it down in reaction to a union campaign.",[16,29,30],{},"Could worker ownership serve as a broader model for the industry—for instance, for owners who wish to retire without simply selling off the business entirely? Is it an option more coffee workers might consider as an alternative to, or alongside, unionization? And what explains Baltimore's role as a hub for worker-owned cooperatives?",[32,33,35],"h2",{"id":34},"baltimores-cooperative-coffee-shops","Baltimore's Cooperative Coffee Shops",[16,37,38],{},"According to the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives, a worker cooperative has two defining features: the members own the business and receive financial benefits tied to their contribution, and the business is democratically governed on a one-worker, one-vote basis.",[16,40,41],{},"The number of worker cooperatives in the U.S. rose by 30% between 2019 and 2021, based on data from the Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI). The attraction of this model is clear: workers gain a democratic voice in how the business is operated and share equally in any profits. As DAWI reported in 2019, in the 13 states with the most worker co-ops, the average entry-level wage at a worker-owned cooperative exceeded the minimum wage by more than $7 per hour.",[16,43,44],{},"Baltimore has a long cooperative tradition—America's first cooperative factory was established there in 1794—but the city's modern revival of worker-owned businesses started in 2004 with the opening of Red Emma's. A radical bookstore and cafe, Red Emma's has become one of Baltimore's most prominent cooperatives, attracting national attention and serving as an incubator for other aspiring worker-owners.",[16,46,47],{},"Red Emma's has directly influenced the growth of several local co-ops, and its worker-owners have also contributed to the broader cooperative movement. They were part of the team that established the national funding cooperative Seed Commons, which helps connect co-ops with non-extractive lending, as well as its local affiliate, the Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy (BRED), a financial and development hub. When a cooperative needs assistance expanding or finding a new location, BRED and Seed Commons help secure the necessary funding and support.",[16,49,50],{},"\"When we started Red Emma's in 2003, and opened our first location in 2004, we really had no idea what we were doing,\" says Kate Khatib, co-founder and worker-owner of Red Emma's, co-executive director of Seed Commons, and co-founder and a senior fellow at BRED. \"It was only really about 10 years into our development that we started to understand ourselves as a worker cooperative, and to use that language—and to think differently about ourselves, as a group of workers sharing the collective labor of ownership, rather than as a bunch of activists running a collective cafe.\"",[16,52,53],{},"Red Emma's relocated to a larger space in 2014 and connected with another young Baltimore worker cooperative, Thread Coffee, which was seeking a roasting space. Thread became Red Emma's in-house roastery before expanding into its own space in 2017. \"The period under Red Emma's was sort of like an incubation to try to get Thread off the ground, but the intent was always for it to be its own company,\" says Thread head roaster and worker-owner Holly Kent-Payne.",[16,55,56],{},"Thread initially modeled its structure on Red Emma's but has since refined it into something suited to its specific needs. For instance, Kent-Payne says they extended the time required to become a worker-owner from one year to three. \"That's what we feel works best, just because we're such a small team, and you really have to find someone who's a good fit, you know?\"",[16,58,59],{},"Kent-Payne takes pride in Thread's approach. \"We prioritize things that aren't typical in traditional businesses, like paying ourselves a living wage and paying our employees a living wage,\" she says. \"So the profit margins don't always treat us as kindly as they could, but it's more about what are our priorities as business owners, rather than the bottom line.\"",[32,61,63],{"id":62},"cooperative-ownership-or-unionization-why-not-both","Cooperative Ownership or Unionization? Why Not Both?",[16,65,66],{},"In late 2022, employees at Common Ground Cafe—who wanted a greater voice in their workplace and were growing frustrated with pay disparities across roles—began organizing quietly. Six months later, as they prepared to make their union campaign public, the owner suddenly closed the cafe.",[16,68,69,70,74],{},"The laid-off staff started an Instagram account and shared their perspective, and the community responded immediately. \"Everyone was really encouraging afterward—they were like, 'You should reopen,' and 'You should buy it back,'\" says worker-owner Claud Casquarelly. \"",[71,72,73],"span",{},"We"," ran with it and took the leap of faith together.\"",[16,76,77],{},"The learning curve for building a worker-owned cooperative was steep: \"We had no idea if it was going to work. We didn't know how to run a business,\" Casquarelly says. But BRED and Seed Commons helped them obtain financing. In the end, the workers were able to buy Common Ground from the previous owner, reopening the shop just a few months after it closed.",[16,79,80],{},"Under this new structure, staff members can become owners after one year of working at Common Ground. Crucially, everyone also earns the same salary, regardless of role or ownership status. This commitment to equality led to the next step in the cafe's evolution: even as workers embraced running a cooperative business, the idea of unionizing remained alive. In December 2024, a little more than a year after Common Ground became a cooperative, the 23-person team, including staff and worker-owners, announced they would still unionize with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 27.",[16,82,83,84,87],{},"Casquarelly acknowledges that the concept of a unionized worker-owned co-op may sound unusual. \"At first I was like, 'Why would we need a union when we have so much power in our workplace?' But through a bunch of meetings that we've been having, ",[71,85,86],{},"we understand"," there's still going to be workplace inequity in our structure.\"",[16,89,90],{},"Unionization provides support to non-owners while they are on the path to worker ownership but do not yet have as large a say in how Common Ground is run. \"We're acknowledging that there still is a power dynamic in our workplace between the people who have worker ownership and the people who are workers,\" Casquarelly says. \"We want to make it a place that everybody has some level of feeling like they have the power to change something here.\"",[32,92,94],{"id":93},"a-sustainable-alternative","A Sustainable Alternative",[16,96,97],{},"Several factors explain why Baltimore appears to be a hub for worker-owned cooperatives. According to Khatib, the city's size is a major factor. \"Baltimore is a mid-size city that has a small-town feel,\" she says. \"There is a lot of word of mouth, and a lot of rich neighborhood culture.\"",[16,99,100],{},"Having such a visible worker-owned flagship in Red Emma's also helps. Red Emma's has \"dedicated itself to being a public laboratory for workplace democracy, that's open to sharing its successes and failures with other coops, and that people can just walk into,\" Khatib says.",[16,102,103,104,107],{},"For many coffee workers, especially baristas, finding a sustainable career path in the industry can be difficult. For Kent-Payne, becoming a worker-owner at Thread was life-changing. \"The co-op model in the coffee industry specifically has been extremely transformative in my life,\" she says. \"Going from being a low-wage barista with no real opportunities for advancement, no financial security, no benefits, ",[71,105,106],{},"to"," now, I have been able to become a homeowner, I've been able to start a family, and I have the financial stability and the job satisfaction of a career that I never really thought was possible.\"",[16,109,110],{},"There are many ways to structure a coffee business, but few give workers so much influence over how it operates. \"Co-ops won't solve all our problems as a society of workers,\" Khatib says. \"We still get into fights and hurt each other's feelings, and it can be hard and exhausting! But once you've done it, it's hard to go back.\"",{"title":112,"searchDepth":113,"depth":113,"links":114},"",2,[115,116,117],{"id":34,"depth":113,"text":35},{"id":62,"depth":113,"text":63},{"id":93,"depth":113,"text":94},null,{"slug":120,"name":121,"path":122},"cafe-staffing","Staffing & Labor",[123,126,129],{"slug":124,"name":125},"coffee-tea","Coffee & Tea",{"slug":127,"name":128},"cafe-business","Café Business",{"slug":120,"name":121},[124,127,120],53641,{"src":133,"srcset":134,"width":135,"height":136,"alt":137},"\u002Fuploads\u002F67515c609e9bfb900f8c.webp","\u002Fuploads\u002Fab6ea46ffd7a3664ad01.webp 400w, \u002Fuploads\u002F603f0d8ea6571de3e4fb.webp 800w, \u002Fuploads\u002F67515c609e9bfb900f8c.webp 1600w",1600,996,"The Worker-Owned Coffee Cooperatives of Baltimore","A look at how worker-owned coffee shops in Baltimore are rewriting the rules of employment—and why some are pairing cooperative ownership with union representation.","md",false,"en",{},true,"\u002Fuploads\u002Ff31f1254dbd6b44a91ff.jpg","\u002Fplatform\u002Fitems\u002F53641","2026-09-03T02:54:56.000Z",6,[149,158,166,174],{"url":150,"title":151,"cover":152},"\u002Fcafe-staffing\u002Fprotecting-your-baristas","Safeguarding Baristas: A Guide to Preventing Common Café Injuries",{"src":153,"srcset":154,"width":155,"height":156,"alt":157},"\u002Fuploads\u002Ffc60efce813165a507b3.webp","\u002Fuploads\u002F1b3c838767907617ecc1.webp 400w, \u002Fuploads\u002Ffc60efce813165a507b3.webp 800w",800,443,"What You Need to Know About Common Café Injuries",{"url":159,"title":160,"cover":161},"\u002Fcafe-staffing\u002F5-ways-to-create-a-safer-more-productive-cafe-space","Building a Safer Café: 5 Practical Policies for Staff and Guests",{"src":162,"srcset":163,"width":155,"height":164,"alt":165},"\u002Fuploads\u002Fe7dc1a967cb5793283fc.webp","\u002Fuploads\u002F5ef55bc6f390f83927e9.webp 400w, \u002Fuploads\u002Fe7dc1a967cb5793283fc.webp 800w",453,"5 Ways to Create a Safer & More Productive Café Space",{"url":167,"title":168,"cover":169},"\u002Fcafe-staffing\u002Fthe-mighty-good-coffee-saga","Labor Dispute and Closure: Inside a Michigan Coffee Chain's Turbulent End",{"src":170,"srcset":112,"width":171,"height":172,"alt":173},"\u002Fuploads\u002F778981a9a2e6a1539af9.gif",1015,575,"The Mighty Good Coffee Saga",{"url":175,"title":176,"cover":177},"\u002Fcafe-staffing\u002Fcan-profit-sharing-make-cafes-more-sustainable-marco-suarez-is-betting-on-it","How One Coffee Roaster Is Sharing Profits to Build a Stronger Business",{"src":178,"srcset":179,"width":155,"height":180,"alt":181},"\u002Fuploads\u002Fd9a430e68bd4d8f1ee88.webp","\u002Fuploads\u002F88ef9c1afa869625c944.webp 400w, \u002Fuploads\u002Fd9a430e68bd4d8f1ee88.webp 800w",534,"Can Profit Sharing Make Cafes More Sustainable? 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