Workers at another major local coffee chain move to unionize

This week workers at Green Line Cafe, the West Philly-rooted coffee shop with locations throughout the city, announced their intent to join Local 80, Philly’s growing barista union.

Twenty-two employees signed a letter addressed to Green Line owners Daniel Thut and Douglas Whitmer, asking them to voluntarily recognize their union and begin bargaining. “We seek respect for our needs, including safe working environments, competitive wages, and transparency,” the letter read, as posted on Instagram by the Philadelphia Joint Board Workers United (PJBWU), of which Local 80 is an affiliate.

Local 80, the PJBWU, and Green Line ownership did not respond to requests for comment.

Green Line workers’ action comes almost a month after Philly-based Bluestone Lane employees unanimously voted to unionize, three weeks after workers at OCF Coffee House announced their own union drive, and two weeks after OCF Coffee owner Ori Feibush shuttered all three locations of the cafe chain. Feibush said OCF Coffee had never turned a profit in its 13 years of operation, and that the administrative and legal costs associated with a unionized workforce tipped the scales in the direction of closing.

Thut and Witmer opened the first Green Line — named after the trolley — in 2003 across from Clark Park. In the decades since, they expanded to locations in Powelton Village, Walnut Hill, Center City, and Queen Village. The cafe also has two kiosks at University of Pennsylvania’s dental and veterinary schools. It added a roastery in late 2020.

Local 80 was founded two years ago and currently represents workers at Elixr, ReAnimator, Ultimo, Vibrant, and Bluestone Lane. It previously represented workers at Good Karma Cafe, where workers voted to decertify last year, as well as at Korshak Bagels and Eeva, both of which closed in 2023.