Starbucks

Boston Starbucks Workers Go On Strike Against Union-Busting

July 27, 2022 Madeleine Freeman, Left Voice. Resist! Massachusetts, Starbucks, Strike, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Unionized Starbucks workers at the 874 Commonwealth Avenue location in Boston, Massachusetts are on strike indefinitely, demanding guaranteed hours, adequate staffing, and the removal of a store manager who has created a “chaotic and hostile work environment,” including making racist and homophobic comments against staff and customers. The store, which is located on the main thoroughfare of Boston University’s campus and services many of its students and staff, has been shut down since July 18; workers and their supporters have been picketing each day outside the store even as an intense heat wave strikes much of the country. They say they will prevent any deliveries from coming to the store. In response, Teamsters local 25 is refusing to make deliveries to the store in solidarity with the strike.

Starbucks Union Files Complaint: Store Closures Are Retaliation

July 15, 2022 Maxwell Parrott , In These Times. Resist! Starbucks, union busting, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

After Starbucks announced Monday that it plans to shutter 16 U.S. stores as part of a strategy for addressing store safety, the chain’s rapidly expanding union filed a complaint alleging that the move is a form of union-busting. The coffee chain said that by the end of the month it would close six stores each in the Seattle and Los Angeles areas, two in Portland, Oregon, as well as locations in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. On Wednesday, Seattle workers from Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) — the union that has been organizing stores across the country — filed an unfair labor practice charge arguing that the closures amount to retaliation and illegal coercion against union activity. Of the 16 stores set for closure, two locations in Seattle have successfully unionized and one store in Portland is set for a union vote in August.

Starbucks Union Push In Atlanta Part Of National Organizing Trend

July 9, 2022 Michael E. Kanell, The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Organize! Atlanta, Georgia, Starbucks, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

About a dozen customers were spread around the Ansley Mall Starbucks on a recent Friday, quietly working at tables or fiddling on their smartphones. From behind the counter came the tapping of brewing tools, the crinkling of wrappers, a bean-grinder straining. Two baristas wore shirts with rainbows and the words, “So glad you’re here.” The café felt laid-back, friendly, bright, welcoming and diverse. The only sign that this one was any different than 9,000 other Starbucks stores was a button, half-hidden in the folds on one barista’s apron.

Labor Notes 2022: Which Way Forward For The Movement?

June 19, 2022 Left Voice. Strategize! Amazon, Labor Movement, Starbucks, Worker Rights and Jobs

After decades of decline and stagnation, U.S. Labor stands at a crossroads. On one side is the same old path of the labor bureaucracy that has sold its soul to the Democratic Party and which has no vision for a renewed labor movement beyond further entrenching itself in the U.S. state. On the other side are the thousands of new young activists and workers marching to the beat of a new grassroots unionism who have the potential to build a national movement to organize millions of workers from below. The formation of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and the victory at the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, as well as the hundreds of new Starbucks stores that have formed unions in the last four months show the power and potential of rank-and-file organizing.

Starbucks Workers Rally After Unionized Store Abruptly Closes

June 9, 2022 MyNorthwest. Resist! New York (NY), Starbucks, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Ithaca, New York - Outside of a soon-to-be-closed Starbucks in Ithaca, N.Y. a series of union organizers, Starbucks Workers United members, local activists, political figures, and supporters, rallied in protest against Starbucks’ announcement to close the location, which they say is due to the store’s recent attempts to unionize. Speakers at the press conference urged an Ithaca-wide boycott of Starbucks and its cafés until the company negotiates to keep the Collegetown store open. Some employees still haven’t gotten word from the company about whether they’ll have jobs after the closure. “We can’t let Starbucks decide to close a union store two months after we won a vote just because all of the workers here won’t let managers talk to us however way they want to, or put us through hell,” said Benjamin South, a Collegetown Starbucks worker and one of the union’s local leaders, at the rally.

Austin Starbucks Employees Become First To Unionize In Texas

June 5, 2022 Drew Knight, Kvue. Organize! Labor Movement, Starbucks, Texas, Unions

Austin, Texas - A local Starbucks location celebrated victory Friday, becoming the state's first unionized store. KVUE first learned about the 45th Street and Lamar Boulevard location's attempts to unionize in March. The location had sent a letter to the CEO of Starbucks after another local store also announced its plans to attempt a union. At the time, Starbucks provided KVUE with the following statement: We are listening and learning from the partners in these stores as we always do across the country. From the beginning, we’ve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed.

These Baristas Have Been On Strike For Over Three Months

June 2, 2022 Hannah Faris , In These Times. Resist! Illinois, Labor Movement, Starbucks, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Detroit, Illinois - At Great Lakes Coffee Roasters, a cafe in Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood, 20 baristas have been on strike since February 16, demanding recognition of their union and a first contact. Calling themselves “Comrades in Coffee,” these workers have launched one of the first recognition strikes — a labor action forcing an employer to acknowledge a collective bargaining representative — that the city has seen in years. Their demands include higher wages and improved workplace safety and benefits. The baristas also say they want to set a new standard for cafes across Detroit, while joining a national movement of cafe organizing. The small chain employs about 24 baristas and cooks across the metro area, in the flagship cafe in Midtown and four satellite locations in local grocery stores.

How Amazon And Starbucks Workers Are Upending The Organizing Rules

June 1, 2022 Chris Brooks, In These Times. Organize! Amazon, Labor Movement, Starbucks, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

“Workers are reaching out to our union in unprecedented numbers,” says Alan Hanson, organizing director for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 in the Washington, D.C., area. “And they’re coming to us in a way I’ve never seen. “The checklist that staff organizers have — get a list, identify leaders, make sure the organizing committee is diverse and represents all departments and classifications — these workers are coming to us and they have already done all of that. I haven’t had four successful worker-generated organizing campaigns in my entire career and we just had four in four months.” At one of those shops, Union Kitchen, a D.C.-based grocery store, workers went on a three-day strike before their union was even certified, a level of militancy that seemed all but extinct but has now begun reappearing in nascent organizing campaigns.

Deep South Baristas Strike Starbucks

May 30, 2022 Labor Notes. Resist! South Carolina, Starbucks, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Columbia, South Carolina - Starbucks baristas in Columbia, South Carolina, returned to their jobs on Saturday, May 21, following a three-day walkout to protest anti-union retaliation. Managers began denying employees promotions and transfers several weeks ago after 22 of 28 “partners” at the Millwood Avenue store petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for union representation. The workers reached a breaking point on May 18 when a popular store manager was fired for refusing to engage in union busting. Two hours after learning of their manager’s dismissal the entire shift walked out, forcing the store to close early. “She was a large reason a lot of us were still with the company,” said barista Sophie Ryan of her former manager.

Lessons From The Starbucks Union In Chile

May 24, 2022 Andrés Giordano, Labor Notes. Organize! Chile, Labor Unions, Starbucks, Worker Rights

The Starbucks union was founded in Chile in 2009, at the same time as big student mobilizations. These mobilizations were part of the seed that made it possible to form a union at Starbucks and in an area like fast food, which is very difficult to organize. The corporate culture of Starbucks is profoundly anti-union. Howard Schultz, who was the CEO of the company [he returned to that role in April —Eds.], is a megalomaniac who cannot bear to see his workers organizing and deciding for themselves what is right. Starbucks is one of the companies in Chile with the most fines for anti-union practices. All of that was conceived in Seattle, not in Chile. It was devised in the headquarters, where they are devising the tough campaign that you are experiencing now.

The Rapidly Growing Starbucks Union In Numbers

May 20, 2022 Matt Bruenig, People's Policy Project. Organize! Starbucks, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

In the 60 elections that have been run so far, the union has won 90 percent of the time and the average unit size of the unionized stores is 28 workers. If these same numbers hold for the 193 open cases where an election has not yet been administered, then the Starbucks union will soon win an additional 174 elections and thereby add an additional 4,870 workers to their rolls. Combining the numbers from the elections that have been run and these projections for the elections that will be run soon reveals that, based on current filings alone, the Starbucks union is likely to have 6,384 workers at 228 locations in the next few months. If the union continues filing for 2 elections per day, those numbers will of course continue to grow.

Oregon Starbucks Workers Go On Strike Against Union Busting

May 18, 2022 Left Voice. Resist! Labor Movement, Oregon, Starbucks, Strike, union busting, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Starbucks workers at a location in Eugene, Oregon went on strike on Tuesday to protest the union busting at their location and the unlawful firing of three organizers. The workers at this Starbucks store voted 17-0 in favor of unionizing. They are part of the massive Starbucks unionization wave, with 70 other stores nationwide winning union elections and over 250 stores filing to unionize. Starbucks, however, is doing everything it can to stop this wave. As Starbucks Workers United described in a statement: “Starbucks has continued to cut workers’ hours, coerce them into voting against union representation by mischaracterizing the law and preemptively refusing to engage in good faith bargaining… Starbucks has failed to recognize their union despite having no good-faith reason not to.”

Revolutionary Grounds

May 13, 2022 Jana Silverman, Forge Organizing. Organize! Labor Unions, Starbucks, Student Activism, Worker Rights and Jobs

On February 23, the DSA International Committee, Starbucks Workers United, and the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee hosted Revolutionary Grounds to hear insights from Starbucks workers organizing from Buffalo, New York, to Valparaíso, Chile. Jana Silverman, a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Center for Global Workers Rights, talked with Andrés Giordano, incoming leftist Chilean congressman and a founding leader of Sindicato Starbucks Chile; Jaz Brisack, member of the Elmwood Starbucks Bargaining Committee; RJ Red, member of the Genesee St. Starbucks Bargaining Committee; and Joe Carolan, an organizer in New Zealand. Below is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Buffalo Starbucks Workers Strike Against Unfair Labor Practices

May 7, 2022 Left Voice. Resist! Labor Movement, New York (NY), Starbucks, Strike, Worker Rights and Jobs

Buffalo, New York - On Thursday, workers at a downtown Starbucks in Buffalo, New York went on strike after the company announced it was planning to withhold proposed wage increases and benefits from employees at newly unionized stores. The one-day strike, which shut down the entire store, was a direct response to the announcement by CEO Howard Schultz that proposed raises and benefit increases at corporate-owned Starbucks cafes would not apply to locations that had already unionized or which are planning to unionize. Schultz, who founded the company and now has a net worth of almost $4 billion, claimed that his hands were tied and that Starbucks is legally unable to make changes to wages and benefits at stores that have organized or which are currently involved in collective bargaining. But this is a lie.

Fired Starbucks Workers Bring Their Fight Directly To The CEO

April 30, 2022 James Dennis Hoff, Left Voice. Resist! Labor Unions, NLRB, Starbucks, Worker Rights

Sanchez and McGlawn are two of the seven workers, known as the “Memphis Seven,” who were fired by Starbucks in February, just weeks after they announced their plans to form a union there. In a blatantly illegal move, the company terminated the workers (about a third of the entire staff) for supposedly violating company policy after they met with reporters in the store to talk about unionization efforts. But almost all of the workers who were fired were involved in organizing for the union, and it is clear that the terminations were a direct act of retaliation designed to crush these workers’ efforts to form a union and put an end to the unionization wave spreading throughout the company. The National Labor Relations Board has called the firings illegal, and has already filed complaints against the company.

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