Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Here’s part of a lengthy note posted on Firestorm Cafe’s page on Facebook regarding controversy surrounding the Weaverville-based makers of Buchi kombucha and their living wage certification through the Just Economics’, an Asheville nonprofit:
It has recently come to our attention that employees at your company are paid below this wage requirement. This is deeply disappointing, as we and our patrons have chosen to pay a premium to support sustainable employment for your workers, who are members of our local community. Even more troubling, we understand that when employees sought clarification from the Living Wage Campaign, your company retaliated with threats of termination and fired the individual who spoke to Just Economics. This series of events suggests that your company has both misrepresented its compensation of employees and attempted to conceal unethical business practices from consumers.
For these reasons, Firestorm Cafe & Books has chosen to discontinue the sale of Buchi until the following steps are taken:
- Cease all claims to living wage certification or make public the correction of compensation discrepancies, past and present.
- Publicly commit to maintain a safe work environment by taking no future action against employees who exercise their freedom of speech and association.
While chain stores may continue to stock Buchi, we encourage fellow local businesses and principled individuals to pass over Buchi for another beverage until corrective action has been taken.
We trust that you will work quickly to resolve these issues, signaling to critics that you take seriously your commitment to community centered business. We look forward to resuming a relationship that has been both personally and professionally rewarding.
The action follows an excellent story by Mountain Xpress reporter David Forbes published this week, and my Nov. 25 column on the same topic. The connection between Firestorm Cafe and Buchi is that the former Buchi employee who initially raised these concerns – Kila Donovan – is co-founder of Firestorm and Asheville LETS.
This is why I don't associate with poor people.
Libertie,
Are you friends with Kila? Sure seems fairly obvious from your comments.
So True Constance!
@Constance, As a Firestorm worker-owner, I can assure you that we don't have trust funds. And if you'd ever actually been to Firestorm, you'd know better than to put "work" in scare quotes. We bust ass. (Which might explain why we are still open in a recession when many other cafes have closed.)
For anyone interested, here is a direct link to the excellent MAIN-FM segment: http://archive.main-fm.org/systemic-20101226.mp3
Time to support Buchi!
Love Buchi !!!
Would you guys prefer they send these good paying jobs to China? Not everyone has a trust fund to support them while they "work" at places like Firestorm that dont even pay MINIMUM wage!
worked. thanks!
The link is correct, just checked it. Scroll down to "Systemic Effect", then click "podcast, and you'll see a few months of archives for the show. click on the one labeled 12/26, because that's the date of the interview.
Virginia: looks like the the archive page doesn't show your interview. any in fact. is there a different way to get to them?
Rick Party:
Good question. For more info, see Buchi's letter to the editor in this issue of xpress. Posts online at 9 tonite.
My interview with Kila Donovan and Joe Rinehart is available for listening (archive available at this site for 1 week)… Click this link, then scroll down to "Systemic Effect"
http://main-fm.org/nav/archives/
I'm going to go buy some right now!
"It is particularly interesting to me that the people who advocate a lack of authority are trying to tell you what to do."
I don't think advertising a boycott and exercising their choice as a business not to carry a certain product equates to telling anyone else what to do. It amounts to pressure on Buchi to do the right thing if they want to maintain a customer, yes, but isn't the beauty of the free market precisely the fact that we are able to vote with our dollars? Your logic is bewilderingly self-contradictory.
Why hasn't Buchi pushed more aggressively to have their side of the story heard? The link to their official response in this thread's comment section is the only reference I've seen, you can't even find it on their home page…
If I thought I was being libeled, or at the very least misrepresented, by a "disgruntled" former employee, I would be more forthcoming about what I felt was the truth.
I'd love to see the Buchi response……
Buchi,
This is an event to learn and grow from.
You are not morally or socially obligated to respond to threats and/or orders from other local businesses. They have no right to force their ideologies on you. It is particularly interesting to me that the people who advocate a lack of authority are trying to tell you what to do. If they are an important account of yours then you should deal with them privately and not in social media.
What you produce here is very popular and locally made. It is also a live, nutritious, and affordable product. As entrepreneurs who take the risk of opening your own business you have the right to pay wages you want to pay. You also have the right to profit from your production.
You have a moral obligation to be truthful, which is whet the living wage issue seems to be a concern. You don't have to be living wage certified but you should pay your staff enough to live a good life. It's that easy.
Here is the response letter from Buchi. I kept hearing rumors of its existence, but it took some work to find, because nothing on the drinkbuchi.com website referred directly to it, I had to get the exact link from someone.
Here it is:
http://drinkbuchi.com/our-response-firestorm-cafe
Tomorrow, (if the roads are driveable) I will be doing a radio show on this topic. My show is Systemic Effect on Main FM. It is about the consciousness shift happening right now in our world at this time. It is from 11am-noon Sunday mornings, on 103.5fm in Asheville or streamed live at mainfm.org
Tomorrow, I will be talking with Kila Donovan and Joe Rinehart (who is from Firestorm). We will talk about not only this exact situation, but also the deeper implications. Themes we will discuss will include the employer-employee relationship, accountability, integrity, the Living Wage Certification Program, whether it still means something when businesses are allowed to use exchange as part of wages, whether Just Economics is only being used as a marketing tool and a way of covering up underlying economic injustices, or whether it is (or could be) part of the real paradigm shift moving forward. We will also talk about economics in general, including different economic models, and how this whole situation represents problems in the current economic system. (and more…)
It's interesting how this is initially presented as if Firestorm was some sort of disinterested third party standing off to the side and offering commentary on the dispute between Donovan and Buchi. Well, right up until the final sentence when you point out that one of the parties in the dispute is intimately involved with this "third party" . . .
Well, Mr. Johnson, it's a big difference, in that Firestorm worker-owners have a democratic workplace–they have democratic input and control over their working conditions, which Buchi obviously does not have. And they have the assurance that as Firestorm turns more profit, the first place that will go is to the worker-owners, not in the boss' or investors' pockets.
It would be great if more small businesses chose the cooperative model, since in so many small business owners take home less money than they are able to pay their workers, especially when they are getting off the ground. If they went co-op, there would be much less tension about the pay scale and stuff, cause everyone is on a level (and responsibility is spread around). Co-ops are awesome!
Hi Buchi, I haven't received your response, but I'll be happy to post it when I receive it. Feel free to post in comments here, or email to [email protected].
Thanks.
We emailed our response to Firestorm's letter. Please post it as well.
The use of "contract labor status" instead of "employee" is highly questionable in this company because the workers do not set their own hours, use their own equipment and do not contract out to other companies to do this job (like a janatorial service for example). Those criteria are generally accepted standards for contract labor status.
So not only was the employee really only getting $8.50 per hour ($10.00 minus the 15% owed for ssi) there are no other benefits, like workmens compensation….in case of on the job injury.
And whoop di dooo on the two free bottles of fermented tea a day as part "payment" Chances are the cost of two teas is around 50 cents….if that.
This is big talk coming from a "cooperative" that doesn't pay its own employee/owners a living wage…
I don't touch the stuff so, thankfully, I don't have to wrestle with this dilemma.
Sean
Wow, hooray for Firestorm! Here's hoping Buchi gets their act together, because they really do have the best tasting kombucha I have ever tried, anywhere. The whole point of Just Economics Living Wage campaign is to hold local businesses accountable, and to (hopefully) elevate our standard of living here in WNC. We the consumer can help by holding these businesses accountable as well. I can't wait to lift my personal boycott of Buchi.