Claire Valentine-Fossum

Claire Valentine-Fossum is a Portland native who participated in an organizing effort at a Peet's Coffee shop in Chicago. The Peet's Workers Group is currently inactive, but has sent out ripples through the world of service industry and small-shop organizing. Claire discusses the complexities of talking to coworkers about organizing; going public to management; weathering corporate retaliation; and the realities of the food service industry.

For more on the Peet's Workers Group, check out their blog at http://peetsworkersgroup.blogspot.com/.

The Atlantic Monthly article about the group, and labor organizing amongst "millenials," can be found here.

And the Portland chapter of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) can be contacted here.