BALTIMORE, Md — Common Ground has been a staple in the Hampden neighborhood for over 25 years.
Just before the summer of 2023, the workers at Common Ground were in the middle of trying to unionize. They wanted improvements in the workplace.
But on July 2nd, they showed up to the coffee shop and couldn’t get in.
“Shutting the whole business down was a little bit—yeah, it was pretty unreal," says Kelsey Bacon, worker-owner of Common Ground.
Claud Casquarelly was in graduate school at the time and had just decided to get back into the service industry.
“I had only been working here for five days; I had just gotten hired, literally didn’t even get a paycheck from here yet and I had just picked up a shift the next day, and I looked at the slack message, and it was like, by the way, we're closed effective immediately," says Casquarelly.
Instead of filling for unemployment and hunting for another job, 22 original employees decided they would take over the business and keep the coffee shop alive.
“We really ran the shops ourselves kind of anyway before that because our owner wasn’t super involved, so I felt like we felt super capable of it," says Kelsey.
And they say turning the business into a co-op was the best decision they could make for the coffee shop and for themselves.
“We really just played to each other's strengths here, and whatever people are doing, people are trusted and empowered to continue making those good decisions," says Claud Casquarelly.
On Wednesday, Common Ground celebrated the anniversary of its first year as a worker-owned business, giving away discounted items and hosting an afterparty.
Casquarelly says when they think about this past year, they are proud they were able to keep the business open.
“One of the best things is just being able to, like, pause for a second and take ourselves out of it and be like, woah, like we built this; that part, I think, is the most satisfying," they said.
Kelsey Bacon says support from the community along the way is simply the icing on the cake.
“What really amazed me um how many people like wanted us to keep going," says Bacon.
Now the workers are looking forward to growing the business and keeping it as a staple in the Hampden neighborhood.
“I just think it is really special that like we get to do this in Baltimore, and Baltimore has such a deep-rooted history in workers' rights, unionization efforts, and co-ops in general, so it feels really cool and really inspiring to like be a part of that history and that community and like live on that Baltimore legacy, and like I think that is the most special part," says Claud Casquarelly.
Within the last year, the worker owners were also able to increase their pay by 50%, have paid holiday and sick leave, established a mutual aid fund for staff, and create a workers' council.
