Berkeley

Peet’s Workers in Oakland, Berkeley Exposed to Virus Seek Better COVID Policies

Published

5 years ago

December 17, 2020

Kiki

A sign on the door of Peet’s Coffee at 1111 Broadway in downtown Oakland announces that the store is temporarily closed. The COVID-related temporary closure started December 5 and ended on December 14. Photo by Zack Haber on December 11.

In the wake of confirmed in-store positive COVID-19 cases at Oakland and Berkeley locations, low wage Peet’s Coffee workers and ex-workers say they want the company to organize better safety measures.

Since workers currently employed at Peet’s said they feared retaliation for speaking out, and ex-workers said they thought naming themselves could make securing new employment more difficult, all workers and ex-workers in this article appear under pseudonyms. They are all in their early 20s and make or made around $16 an hour.

“I couldn’t bear it anymore,” said Stephanie, who recently decided to quit working as a barista at Peet’s after a year and a half. “I would go to work crying, come home crying. I had nightmares and panic attacks at the thought of being a conduit for the virus and getting people sick because of the exposure I had to endure.”

Both Stephanie’s onsite manager and the systems Peet’s is using in Oakland and Berkeley stores made her feel “genuinely unsafe.” She found herself dealing with customers who would take their masks off to taste drinks or use facial recognition on their cellphones. Regular customers would dismiss her requests for them to keep their masks on in her presence, which she attributed to her manager, Sarah Louis, creating an environment that was “lax about mask regulations.”

“[Louis] invited people to do tastings and drink their drinks inside,” said Stephanie. When she would complain about feeling unsafe and asked for support in enforcing mask-wearing, she said the manager told her she should seek employment elsewhere. Louis has not responded to an e-mail requesting her comment on this story.

Since mid-November, Peet’s employees working at a store on Broadway in downtown Oakland as well as a store on Domingo Avenue in Berkeley have tested positive for COVID-19, resulting in both stores temporarily closing. After the positive cases, Peet’s has continued its regular policy of shuffling employees from their regular work site to one of over a dozen different stores in Berkeley and Oakland when staffing shortages occur.

The shuffling policy concerns Stephanie and other Peet’s workers, like Timothy, who has worked at Peet’s for over three years. Timothy’s regular work site is different than Stephanie’s and he has a different manager. He feels his manager does their best to keep his work site safe and appreciates that they are strict about enforcing mask-wearing. But the shuffling policy makes him feel unsafe.

“It’s hard to do a risk assessment when you’re going to another store,” said Timothy. “That can be kind of scary.”

Citing “the privacy of Peet’s employees” a spokesperson for Peet’s media team declined to comment on how the shuffling policy works or reveal how many employees have tested positive for COVID-19 in Berkeley and Oakland stores.

Timothy said that COVID-19 safety precautions “really vary from store to store,” and that the company is not transparent about which stores have had positive cases or the virus-related benefits the company offers.

Informed by Peet’s management that he had been exposed to the virus when he took a shift at the Domingo Avenue store, Timothy took some time off to get tested by using some of the 36 hours of COVID time Peet’s offers. But Peet’s had never told him taking the paid time off was an option. He found out about the benefit himself by searching through Peet’s web site. He was not required to quarantine and went back to work after a negative test and being cleared by a doctor.

Michelle, a Peet’s employee who works at the same site Stephanie did, said that even after she informed her manager that she had been in close contact with people who had tested positive for COVID and likely had been exposed, she was still encouraged to return to work because she was asymptomatic and had not tested positive herself.

“There was no forethought about the risk,” said Michelle.

Peet’s workers say the company only informs them of possible risky COVID-19 work-related interactions if they have come into direct contact with a co-worker who has tested positive. They do not inform workers about outbreaks at stores or other possible risky coronavirus- related interactions. Lacking info from the company, workers try to keep each other informed about their COVID-related interactions and status.

“[Management] doesn’t let us know about anything so we think we should be more transparent with each other,” said Michelle. “We all know that there’s outbreaks because we hear about it through the grapevine.”

In at least one instance, employees think management attempted to stifle such communication. Jessica, another Peet’s worker, was concerned she might have COVID so she got tested. Her test came back negative and she communicated that information on a digital chatting platform called Slack that employees had been using to communicate with each other, mostly about scheduling.

She said Louis had repeatedly told her not to communicate about COVID-related issues to other staff due to confidentiality issues, but Jessica thought only posting information about her own status would not create a conflict.

“Within a few hours the entire Slack page for our group was deleted,” said Jessica. When Jessica asked why it had been deleted, Louis told her it was due to Jessica posting a meme after the presidential election that made fun of Donald Trump, as political posts weren’t allowed.

“At this point I knew she was just trying to cover her” butt, said Jessica. “The timing didn’t add up.” The Slack chat was deleted a month after the election.

Although Peet’s media team did not answer specific questions about their shuffling practices, mask usage, paid sick leave, or the Slack chat shutdown, they did respond with an e-mailed statement that addressed some of these issues broadly.

“Peet’s uses the most current guidance and updates from the Center for Disease Control and Departments of Public Health to inform our process and procedures for handling COVID-19 related issues in the workplace,” reads the statement. “This includes protocols such as specialized cleanings of our coffee bars, health and wellness checks for our employees, mask, hand-washing and distancing protocols, employee notifications upon an incident of a positive COVID case, and quarantine periods for employees’ consistent with CDC guidelines. We have company paid sick-leave programs and also follow local and/or state paid leave requirements for COVID specific situations.”

But many Peet’s workers do not feel safe. Michelle has cut her hours back to one day a week and is planning on leaving the job as soon as she has secured a new job she finds safer.

“I like making coffee,” she said. “I just don’t want to die or kill anyone.”

Kiki

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Arts and Culture

Farwest Region Deltas Celebrate Centennial With “September Breakfast” Honoring Vivian Osborne Marsh

The region was established in 1925 under the leadership of Vivian Osborne Marsh, who became its first Regional Director. Marsh was a pioneering scholar and civic leader, earning recognition as the first Black woman to receive both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in anthropology from UC Berkeley.

Published

3 months ago

September 14, 2025

Oakland Post

Farwest Regional Director, Kimberly Usher, Mayor Barbara Lee, US Representative Lateefah Simon, and Farwest Regional Representative, Radiya Ajibade. Photo courtesy of Farwest Regional Photographer Vicki P. Love.

By Antoinette Porter

Hundreds of members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and their guests gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union at the University of California, Berkeley, to mark the 100th anniversary of the sorority’s Farwest Region.

Marsh went on to serve as Delta Sigma Theta’s 7th National President, where she launched the sorority’s National Library Project to expand access to books in underserved Black communities in the South. During her presidency, the organization also became a prominent voice in the civil rights movement, lobbying Congress to pass anti-lynching legislation.

Bak in the Bay Area, Marsh devoted her career to advancing educational opportunities, mentoring young people, and strengthening community life. That commitment continues to shape the region, which supports initiatives in education, social justice, and economic development. Current projects include raising scholarship funds for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, voter education campaigns, and health and wellness programs.

A century after its founding, the Farwest Region of Delta Sigma Theta remains active across California and other western states, carrying forward Marsh’s vision of service and advocacy.

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

Cal Performances Presents Angélique Kidjo & Yo-Yo Ma in Sarabande Africaine at UC Berkeley Greek Theatre on Aug. 30

On Saturday, Aug. 30, the pair will debut the Bay Area premiere of Sarabande Africaine, joined by pianist Thierry Vaton, percussionist David Donatien, and special guest Sinkane. The program illuminates centuries of musical interplay between African traditions and Western classical forms, using the Baroque sarabande dance, and its African ancestor, the Congolese spirit dance Zarabanda, as a gateway to exploring the deep, interconnected roots of global music.

Published

4 months ago

August 25, 2025

Oakland Post

Angelique Kidjo and Yo-Yo Ma. Wikimedia photos.

By Carla Thomas

On Labor Day weekend two of the world’s most celebrated musicians and cultural ambassadors, Grammy Award–winning vocalist Angélique Kidjo and legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma join forces for an evening of music, history, and cultural dialogue at UC Berkeley’s historic Hearst Greek Theatre.

Both Kidjo and Ma have built careers not only as great performers but as passionate advocates for cultural understanding. Sarabande Africaine is as much a conversation about shared heritage as it is a musical performance, blending genres, geographies, and histories.

“Every day there are moments when all of us can feel we are on the inside of something and also when we feel we are on the outside of something,” said Yo-Yo Ma. “To be able to understand both at the same time and oscillate between the two gives us a larger perspective on the world.”

“If your mind is open, and there is no fear, it’s easier to listen, and to question yourself,” said Kidjo.

The upcoming performance is presented within Cal Performances’ Illuminations: “Exile & Sanctuary” series for the 2025–26 season. The production explores exile as more than just physical displacement, but a disruption in identity and belonging, while sanctuary represents both refuge and the creative space where new connections and communities can take shape.

Cal Performances’ Illuminations bridges performances with UC Berkeley’s academic research, pairing the arts with conversations about urgent global issues.

Kidjo’s continued partnership with Cal Performances includes her 2021–22 artist-in-residence, premiering her music-theater work Yemandja, set in 19th-century West Africa during the transatlantic slave trade.

She also participated in the Bias in Our Algorithms and Society panel alongside campus leaders like Jennifer Chayes, and joined the Black Studies Collaboratory for a dialogue on music, diaspora, and the world.

She has since returned to Berkeley for multiple performances, most recently in 2024 at Zellerbach Hall.

Yo-Yo Ma’s history with Cal Performances spans decades, beginning in 1997. One notable project includes the 2018 performance of Bach’s complete cello suites at the Greek Theatre, a testament to his devotion to creating “transformative concert experiences in iconic spaces.”

For tickets and more information, visit calperformances.org.

Oakland Post

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Activism

The Case Against Probate: False Ruling Invalidates Black Professor’s Estate Plan, Ignoring 28-Year Relationship

Zakiya Folami Jendayi, beneficiary of Head’s estate, states that “The errors, ranging from misstatements of fact, omissions of critical evidence, and reliance on false arguments and testimony, formed the basis of Judge Sandra K. Bean’s ruling against me, Dr. Head’s previous student, mentee, sorority sister and long-time friend,and despite the fact that I was her chosen, power of attorney, Advanced Healthcare Directive agent, trustee, executor and sole beneficiary.”

Published

6 months ago

June 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Dr. Head and Zakiya Jendayi, Their 28 year old friendship was ignored by Probate Court Judge Bean who ruled in favor of Dr. Head's estranged sister's. One sister could not identify Head, in a picture shown while under oath.

By Tanya Dennis

Part 5

In a shocking miscarriage of justice, a California probate judge issued a Statement of Decision on March 28 riddled with numerous documented errors that invalidated the estate plan of esteemed Black Studies professor Dr. Laura Dean Head.

The ruling from the Alameda County Superior Court’s probate division in Berkeley has sparked outrage from advocates for probate reform, community members and civil rights activists, who say the decision reflects deep flaws in the probate system, blatant disregard for due process, and the wishes of the ancestors. Judge Sandra Bean’s ruling reflects a repeated outcome seen in Black and Brown communities.

Reading court transcripts, the most egregious violations according to Jendayi reveal a pivotal point in the ruling that rested on a letter from Dr. Stephan Sarafian of Kaiser Permanente, who misidentified Dr. Head as male, misstated the day, month, and year, and asserted Head lacked capacity.

Under cross-examination, he reversed his opinion and admitted under oath that he never conducted a mental evaluation, did not diagnose Dr. Head with incapacity, did not write the letter, and stated he merely signed it “in case it was needed in the future.”

Despite Sarafian’s perjury, on Oct. 17, 2024, the California Court of Appeal upheld the lower court decision that relied on Sarafian’s discredited letter to invalidate Dr. Head’s estate plan, ignored Jendayi’s requests to impeach his testimony and dismiss Sarafian’s testimony and letter that both the Kaiser Grievance Department and the Medical Board of California denounced.

In her ruling, Judge Bean agreed with the false argument by attorney Leahy, which alleged that Jendayi provided the names of the beneficiaries to Head’s estate attorney, Elaine Lee. Bean made this decision despite Lee’s sworn testimony that Dr. Head had met with her alone, behind closed doors, and made the independent decision to leave her estate to Jendayi.

According to court records, Judge Bean reversed the burden of proof in the undue influence claim before any of Jendayi’s witnesses testified, forcing Jendayi to disprove allegations that were never substantiated by witnesses or records.

Bean ruled: “Respondent took Dr. Head to her apartment where she assumed complete control of Dr. Head’s day-to-day care, medical care, and all aspects of her life.” Jendayi proved that statement was false.

Bean also ruled that Respondent controlled Dr. Head’s necessities of life, food, and hospice care, despite zero testimony or documentation supporting any of those claims.

The court reduced Jendayi’s role to “a friend who, at best, cared for Dr. Head during the final two months,” totally ignoring 28 years of friendship, testimony, evidence, letters of recommendation, emails, and medical records.

Exhibits confirming Dr. Head’s intent and capacity, including the discredited medical letter, Exhibit 90, were omitted or misrepresented in the judge’s final decision.

Jendayi says, “The injustice within the probate justice system is devastating, traumatizing and financially depleting. It’s nothing short of legalized crime!”

Jendayi is now appealing to the Supreme Court of the U.S. with a petition citing denial of due process, judicial misconduct, and systemic bias in probate courts.