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.
