Highwire Coffee's Montclair location at 2059 Mountain Blvd. is open again after a March closure workers called retaliatory union-busting. The federal labor charge filed in its wake is still active — and the original seven baristas are not behind the counter.

At 2059 Mountain Blvd. in Oakland's Montclair neighborhood, the espresso machine is running again. Highwire Coffee reopened its location there on May 29 — roughly three months after its abrupt closure — the same day CEO Jeff Weinstein departed the company. A visitor this weekend found the doors open and a new face behind the counter; when asked what became of the people who used to work there, the answer was measured: they'd been offered positions at other Highwire locations. The fuller answer runs to 63 pages of third-party investigation and an open federal labor case.

On March 2, seven Montclair baristas received layoff emails at 5:08 p.m. — eight minutes after a deadline the Highwire Workers Union (affiliated with UFCW Local 5) had set for management to respond to formal written demands addressing "harassment, transphobia, favoritism, and retaliation." Weinstein's email offered a different reason: the store was closing "because we do not have a manager for the store." Workers disputed this immediately, noting that a manager was scheduled through the following week and that other Highwire stores have operated without a dedicated manager. By the next morning, a "Now Hiring" sign had appeared in the window beside a "Temporarily Closed" notice. Bags of beans and milk sat on the counters inside, going bad.

"Instead of responding to any of those concerns by the deadline, they decided to close the store and lay all the employees off," Hylah Reyes, a four-year Montclair barista and bargaining committee member, told Bay Area Current in March.

The union filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the NLRB on March 23 — case 32-CA-383445 — alleging discriminatory discharge and retaliation for concerted activity under Section 8(a)(3) and 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act. The case is pending in NLRB Region 32. Highwire retained Littler Mendelson, P.C. around March 15; the firm has represented Starbucks and Amazon in union-avoidance matters. Highwire subsequently commissioned a third-party review that produced a 63-page report finding the harassment allegations "unsubstantiated." The company's first public statement about the closure came nine days after it happened, on Instagram, addressed to customers rather than workers.

UFCW Local 5 won voluntary union recognition from Highwire in March 2025, covering 36 workers across eight East Bay locations after an organizing campaign that began the previous August over wages, staffing, and safety. As of January 2026, management had submitted zero contract proposals after nine months at the bargaining table.

Bargaining resumed after the closure. Production supervisor Scott Schulman, a bargaining committee member, told SFGate on June 5 that sessions were "going smoothly so far." Workers say they want transparency and fair treatment — and a first contract. The coffee at Mountain Boulevard is back. The contract is not.