Category: Tel Aviv

The coffee in Tel Aviv (and also throughout the country) is great, excellent, superb. I always praise it. Also tourists do. Yet, two coffee networks are currently in the news, and for the wrong reasons. Both networks, in certain branches in Tel Aviv, have brutally violated their workers’ rights. Here are these two coffee disputes in a nutshell.

Coffee Bean

This network, which boasts good coffee and excellent ice-coffee fired one of it’s workers that tried to form a union. The worker, Alon-Lee Green, sued the Israeli franchise for illegal dismissal. He won and he’s now back to work.

The struggle consisted of a demonstration in front of Coffee Bean’s branch on Ibn Gvirol street, lots of posts in the Israeli blogosphere. Many articles were written. Here’s more info..

I used to drink their excellent cold coffee in the Dizengoff center branch. No more.

Coffee To Go

The second case is currently in the news.. Elite Coffee, which belongs to major Israeli corporate Strauss Elite. Their branch at Tel Aviv University, formerly known as Coffee to Go, distributed the tips in an unfair manner. In addition, tip money was used to complete their underpaid salaries.

The waitresses decided to get up and stand up for their rights. Negotiations failed, and they went on a strike. The management deployed other workers at the cafe, but the protesters beside the cafe make customers go elsewhere.

Except the aforementioned strike and protests, the management lied about the waitresses’ salaries. The last move was an evil one: the management filed a libel suit against 3 waitresses. The story is still developing.

The Hebrew blogosphere is closely covering the story. I thought I’d share it with English readers as well.
The striking workers have set up a blog (Hebrew).

I stick to drinking my coffee in local cafes, that are not part of a network.

We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores and toilet paper
Got Styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive.

Keep on rockin’ in the free world

About the picture: A homeless man sleeping on a Tel Aviv bench beside a glowing globe. The globe is one of 100 globes of an exhibition that celebrates Globalization.

The big events of OneVoice movement were postponed. It began with threats against the event in Jericho, which led to it’s cancellation. A day or two later, the event in Tel Aviv and all the other mirror events around the world were canceled by Daniel Lubetzky’s movement.

I was communicating with them via email and I’ve also followed their blog. They have been preparing for this big day for many months. All their energy was directed towards October 18th. I had the privilege to meet Lubetzky in Tel Aviv, tow months ago, and was impressed by his positive and optimistic spirit.

They had a tough choice. They could let the show go on, without the Jericho event. This would send a message saying that despite the threats and the cancellation of the Jericho event, they are still pursuing peace.

On the other hand, that would have missed the main message: One Voice. Without the parallel event in Jericho, there wouldn’t be one united voice for peace.

I hope that the events are only postponed, and that a new date will be set up soon. Insisting on having parallel events, as originally planned, and making it happen after this week’s disappointment, will just make the message stronger. A terminal cancellation will be a big blow.