Nia Sabri, a 2019 Cleveland State University graduate and a Rising Star barista approaching her three-year anniversary at the Lakewood café, walked into work for her regular shift of crafting cold drinks on a hot summer day. She cracked a joke that she had told her co-worker before, laughing as she said, “the bright lights are making me lightheaded; it must be a gas leak.” Then the carbon monoxide alarm went off.

After her shift, she felt lightheaded and nauseous. Later that night, she received a call from a co-worker informing her that she had been exposed to carbon monoxide. According to ClevelandScene, an assistant manager had checked the cafe's carbon monoxide monitor. It was expired. When new batteries were put in, the device beeped four times, indicating an emergency.

Sabri and her co-workers submitted a petition to management for a safer workplace. Requests included functional equipment, a more cohesive review of customer complaints and the ability to leave the building if employees feel they are in an unsafe situation, such as a carbon monoxide leak. The owners of Rising Star told Ideastream that they were "very upset" at the incident, triggered by a leaking gas generator a construction crew were using in the unit above the cafe.

What followed was a significant response from the community, employee suspensions, the start of union organizing efforts and baristas and patrons left wondering what comes next. Sabri and other Rising Star baristas say they are trying to demonstrate that the fight for better working conditions exists everywhere, including in neighborhood coffee shops. 

Rising Star Coffee was founded by Kim Jenkins in 2012 with one roaster and one café. Since then, it has expanded to six cafés and one roastery in the Cleveland area. According to its website, Jenkins retired in 2020, selling the chain to three employees and one investor. The Cleveland Stater reached out to Jenkins and the company for comment on this article, but had not received a reply by the time of publication.

Unionization effort

After Rising Star baristas presented their petition for better working conditions to management in late July, a long-time employee was let go less than 24 hours later. When the union effort was made public, Rising Star Coffee announced in a social media post that the café would close early on Aug. 2 and 3. 

The Rising Star Workers Union organized a “Sip-In” Aug. 3 in response, asking supporters of the union effort to show up 15 minutes before the cafe was set to close. Ownership asked baristas to stop making orders so the café could close, but they continued. 

Lakewood police were called in an attempt to remove baristas and patrons from the store, which Rising Star described in a social media statement as “a mob of outsiders.” The Rising Star Workers Union and supporters present at the Sip-In said the group included parents with their children, Rising Star regulars and paying customers supporting the employees. 

Rising Star closed its Lakewood cafe on Aug. 3, and remained closed for a month. Members of the Rising Star Workers Union effort continued to hold panel discussions, benefits and speak at rallies. 

Since publicizing their organizing efforts on Instagram in early August, the Rising Star Workers Union has garnered over 5,400 followers. It also received statements of support from former Ohio state senator Nina Turner, state Rep.Tristan Rader and Northeast Ohio Worker Center. A GoFundMe created for terminated baristas has raised more than $13,000.

On Sept. 5, the café reopened on an abbreviated schedule, with some changes to procedures.
 

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“We will be implementing routine third-party safety inspections at all Rising Star Coffee operations moving forward,” Rising Star Coffee said in a social media statement. “Due to recent threats, you will also notice the temporary presence of unarmed security at the Lakewood Cafe. Their purpose is to help ensure that both our baristas and guests feel safe.” 

Comments on the Instagram post were both supportive and critical of the Rising Star Workers Union. 

“One of the comments said ‘Hey, the blue-haired girl is in the cafe right now. Come into the cafe and talk to her,’” Sabri said. “That was terrifying.”

Rising Star Workers Union members said that these comments were left from an account that had been consistently leaving negative comments about their unionization efforts. 

“At the meeting before, I came back, I told them, ‘I am the first and only black employee at the Lakewood café,’” Sabri said. “I experienced microaggressions. I’m afraid if I come back things will escalate for me. For this to happen after I told them that, it’s scary.” 

Sabri was one of two baristas who were brought back for the café’s reopening, while the rest were officially terminated. 
 

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Baristas fired

“They reached out to me on the first day of my semester in an email and said that I was fired,” said Caleb Reese, a senior CSU Film Student and Rising Star Lakewood barista of four years.

Rising Star Lakewood told terminated employees that they were being let go due to harassment claims made Aug. 1, after their original petition was delivered and two days before the cafe shut down. 

“They never gave a specific example,” Reese said. “They said they substantiated the claims, but we have no idea what that evidence was.”

Rising Star told Cleveland Scene they’re pro-organizing and not interested in union-busting. Reese is still working with the organizing effort, although his employment was not reinstated when Rising Star reopened the Lakewood café.

“We loved working there, and this is bigger than Rising Star,” Reese said. “It’s okay to realize you deserve better, and that you should do something about it.” 

What's next?

Clay Reid, a barista working at Rising Star Lakewood’s location for four years, was also not reinstated after the café reopened. He has also been barred from all Rising Star Coffee locations. He continues to work with the organizing effort. 

“We love our co-workers,” Reid said, “We’re just trying to finish what we started.”  

As for Sabri, it has been just under two weeks since she stepped behind the counter again, after her suspension ended and she was welcomed back to the Lakewood location. 

“I’m happy that we are open, because it means we can continue,” Sabri said about the organizing efforts. “It’s kind of hard to interact with an entity that’s not there.” 

Although a resolution that works for all of Rising Star Lakewood’s staff and ownership appears elusive, the doors remain open for business. 

Rising Star Coffee, ex-employees and baristas all agree on encouraging patrons to return to Rising Star. After all, Sabri said, “it is a tipped job.”
 

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