Posts tagged barista
Starbucks union organizer testified before Congress without disclosing she was paid nearly $50K
May 23, 2023 // Michelle Eisen, who spoke at a hearing of the House Education and Labor Committee in September, was paid $49,734 by the Service Employees International Union affiliate in 2022, according to the group’s annual report. But in a Sept. 14 disclosure form Eisen filled out to accompany her testimony, she claimed she was representing just herself as a barista. Lying to Congress, including on a disclosure form, is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, though such cases are rarely prosecuted. “I only recently found out that Ms. Eisen was a paid, Big Labor operative, which she should have disclosed before she testified at the Committee hearing if she was, in fact, being paid at the same time as her testimony,” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) told The Post Monday. Eisen’s concealment may have been part of a wider effort by the labor group to “salt” the workplace with employees who planned to push Starbucks into its first successful unionization at a store in Buffalo. Eisen worked at the first-ever unionized Starbucks, and Workers United sent at least ten other baristas into Buffalo area franchises in the lead-up to the organizing campaign, Bloomberg reported. The report found one of those Workers United organizers tried to build trust with his hiring manager by saying he would blab about any of his fellow employees who complained about workplace conditions. Will Westlake, the organizer, also took upon himself the most menial tasks in order to gain trust from his employer, such as cleaning hard-to-reach areas.
Virginia is battleground in baristas’ organizing fight
April 18, 2023 // The biggest morale boost for Richmond Starbucks barista Tyler Hofmann is when customers make up names like “union solidarity” to identify their orders. “It gets printed out and [employees] have to call out union stuff in the café,” he said. That opens up an opportunity for discussion about workers’ ongoing grievances against the specialty coffee giant. Hofmann is working at Starbucks again after having been fired last May in what his union and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) claimed was illegal retaliation for his organizing efforts at the Richmond store. A private settlement was reached between the company and the regional board of the Workers United union, according to the NLRB, and Hofmann was reinstated.
Unionizing is off the menu at Waltham Starbucks
January 26, 2023 // The majority of employees voted in the secret ballot election; eight voted to unionize, while 15 voted against it. After months of organizing by workers to secure a union election as part of a nationwide movement, baristas at the Market Place Drive Starbucks voted against unionizing.
La Colombe baristas at Gold Coast coffee shop vote to unionize in unanimous election
January 25, 2023 // Baristas at La Colombe’s 955 W. Randolph St. location in the West Loop were scheduled to vote on unionization Tuesday, but the election was postponed due to COVID-19, Blado confirmed. The count will be rescheduled as soon as possible, she said. Elections for two more locations, at 858 Armitage Ave. and at 5158 N. Clark St. are scheduled to take place next week. Baristas at the company’s Wicker Park location have not moved to unionize. La Colombe baristas said Monday they were inspired by union efforts at other coffee shops. Workers at about 10 area Starbucks have voted to unionize since last January. Colectivo Coffee and Intelligentsia Coffee workers in Chicago are unionized with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; Intelligentsia baristas ratified their first collective bargaining agreement at the end of last year.
Baristas Form First Unionized Peet’s Coffee in US With Help From Starbucks Workers
January 25, 2023 // SBWU organizer Tyler Keeling from Lakewood, California played an instrumental role in PWU's efforts, as detailed last week in Jacobin. PWU expressed gratitude to Keeling before and after the union vote.
Workers United says it will waive bargaining rights over some Starbucks benefits
August 4, 2022 // In addition to the benefits Starbucks announced in early May, the company said later that month it would also cover travel expenses for workers seeking gender affirming healthcare or abortions. sip-ins, Workers United International President Lynne Fox, 15-day long strike in Boston,
Starbucks union requests wage increases apply at unionized stores
August 2, 2022 // A labor union representing workers at nearly 200 Starbucks locations has asked the company to extend new wage and benefit increases to unionized employees. Lynne Fox, the international president of Workers United, sent a letter to Starbucks interim CEO Howard Schultz dated July 15 waiving the union’s bargaining rights to wage increases and Starbucks’s other recently announced benefit improvements. training programs, dress code updates, faster sick time accrual and in-app and credit card tipping. Maggie Carter,
Starbucks to close 5 Seattle-based stores, including 2 unionized shops
July 14, 2022 // “Today, we find ourselves in a position where we must modernize and transform the Starbucks experience in our stores and recreate an environment that is relevant, welcoming and safe and where we uplift one another with dignity, respect and kindness,” Schultz said. Seventeen Starbucks stores are closing throughout the U.S. on July 31 as part of the initiative to boost security. The company has said that employees at the closing stores can choose to be reassigned to an alternative store nearby.
One unionized. The other did not. How 2 Milwaukee cafés were changed by union drives
July 8, 2022 // Most irritating to him is what he calls the red tape. The union contract dictates how much time he's allowed to spend behind the bar in his own café. And when he wants to make changes that affect the staff, such as extending store hours, he's supposed to negotiate it through the union, even after he's gotten the go ahead from everyone on his team. "I don't want an additional contract giving me rules," says Lucey. "That's why I quit my job and started my own job, because I wanted to do things my way." Eric Resch, Stone Creek Coffee, Kellie Lutz, Scott Lucey,
Union interest grows in Michigan in response to COVID, wage concerns
July 7, 2022 // Professor Marick Masters teaches business at Wayne State University and has written extensively on labor issues. He told 7 Action News that despite this measurable uptick, union membership in our state is still nowhere near where it used to be. “In 1960, 50% of the workers in Michigan were unionized," he said. Fast forward to now, and it's around 15%, when you combine the private sector and the public sector, where union membership is generally higher. Hannah Whitbeck, Frank Mamat, Coffee Creations,