Posts tagged baristas
Starbucks Baristas File Brief Urging Supreme Court to Allow President to Remove Rogue Agency Officers
October 21, 2025 // The brief concludes with the Foundation’s legal argument that Humphrey’s “cannot neuter the President’s ability to supervise those who exercise substantial parts of [executive] power.” Therefore, the Supreme Court “should make clear that the President’s removal power applies to every agency that exercises executive power, including the NLRB.”
Starbucks store closings: 59 unionized locations on doomed list in company restructuring
October 2, 2025 // Baristas from closing stores will either be offered severance packages or transferred to new locations, which has led uneasy employees to crowdsource their own list of shuttering locations as they wait for official word. The stakes remain high for Starbucks if it fails to settle a contract and workers go on strike ahead of the holiday season, which is the busiest and most profitable time of the year for the company.
The Castro’s central Starbucks — ‘Bearbucks’ — shutters abruptly
September 27, 2025 // Affectionately known as “Bearbucks” — owing to the prevalence of LGBTQ+ customers — that location was the first Starbucks in the city to unionize, during a nationwide push in 2022. At the time, workers cited difficulties at the cafe during and after the pandemic, including a four-month closure for plumbing issues. Citing declining sales, the company has shuttered at least six cafes in San Francisco in the past year, most of them downtown.
Why new Starbucks dress code prompted over 2,000 baristas to walk out on strike
May 20, 2025 // Starbucks said in its announcement the new design provided a "more defined color palette includes any solid black short and long-sleeved crewneck, collared, or button-up shirts and any shade of khaki, black, or blue denim bottoms" and it's "making a new line of company branded t-shirts available to partners, who will receive two at no cost." What they're saying: A striking barista said in a video posted Thursday to the union's Bluesky account that Starbucks "made a big decision about our jobs without bargaining with us, and this time it's a new restrictive dress code, one that we're paying or out of pocket."
Starbucks union workers strike over dress code changes
May 16, 2025 // The company restricted its dress code to solid black long and short-sleeved shirts, company branded t-shirts and black, khaki or blue denim pants — a significant restriction of its dress rules. The union also filed an amendment to unfair labor practice charges stating the dress code changes “materially differed from both the status quo and what the parties had tentatively agreed to at the bargaining table, thus undermining the Union’s representational status.”
Federal Appeals Court Hears Arguments in Starbucks Baristas’ First-In-The-Nation Suit Challenging Constitutionality of NLRB
May 16, 2025 // Cortes and Karam’s case, originally filed in 2023, was the first in the nation to advance the argument that NLRB board members’ removal protections – which insulate members of the federal labor board from accountability to the President except on very rare occasions – violate separation of powers doctrines in Article II of the Constitution. Since Foundation attorneys filed the baristas’ case, the Trump Administration advanced the same arguments to remove Biden NLRB Member Gwynne Wilcox from the Board, which is now the subject of ongoing litigation.
NY Starbucks Baristas File Amicus Brief Opposing Reinstatement of Biden-Appointed NLRB Member Removed by President Trump
March 13, 2025 // Starbucks employees have pending federal lawsuit challenging NLRB structure as unconstitutional, argue they could be harmed if member’s removal is blocked
Unionized Blue Bottle Coffee baristas walk out for nearly eight minutes, demand fair wages, working hours
January 29, 2025 // Saturday’s walkout at the Newbury Street location, in addition to the Chestnut Hill and Kendall Square locations, came in response to the company’s failure to guarantee working hours and tip differentials to subsidize thinly-spread tip pools amongst additional baristas.
Park Slope Starbucks closing, after October unionization
January 17, 2025 // While Starbucks said in a statement that the company has “engaged Workers United to discuss transfer options for the 14 partners currently employed at this location to continue working at nearby stores,” Sammy said Starbucks had told partners they were not guaranteed a job at another store, but Starbucks would do its best to find them a position within the company.
La Colombe Fires West Loop Baristas as Unionized Workers Cry Foul
December 11, 2024 // During the meetings, the baristas were shown videos of them working. In the footage, the baristas were giving away free drip coffee to regular patrons, other service industry workers, and unhoused individuals. Throughout the meetings, the company’s representatives questioned the baristas and took detailed notes.