Posts tagged Starbucks Workers United
Op-Ed: The Supreme Court Ruling in the Starbucks Case Proves the Law Won’t Save Labor
June 17, 2024 // As a union organizer and Starbucks worker, I’ve seen the effects of corporate retaliation up close. In December 2020, I took a job at the Elmwood Avenue Starbucks in Buffalo, with the goal of unionizing my workplace. A year later, our store voted to become the first unionized corporate Starbucks location in the United States, sparking a wave of organizing across the company. In response to our union campaign, Starbucks unleashed a union-busting effort that began with managers and executives swarming our stores in Buffalo and escalated to firings (including my own), store closings, and the withholding of new benefits, like seniority pay and credit card tipping, from unionized stores nationwide.
Workers at DC’s Wydown cafes got organized. Then they lost everything.
June 3, 2024 // Alex McCracken, Wydown’s co-owner, wrote in an email to Restaurant Dive that he and his two co-owners decided last year that they “were ready for a change.” A copy of management’s message to workers announcing the closure also stated the closure was the result of a long, unspecified process.
The Growing Distance Between Unions and Union Workers
April 5, 2024 // In theory, a thriving labor movement aims at deploying such coup-style strategies after winning the favor of the workers that spearhead its success. But this is the direct opposite of what’s happening today. Rather than being buoyed by the wave of employees flooding its ranks, the labor movement is instead hemorrhaging members and attempting to forge ahead by pushing against the current of worker sentiment. Unions’ numbers are dwindling. Grassroots tactics are withering. The workers of the world just aren’t uniting the way that unions would like. The solution, for today’s unions, is to invert their playbook, putting corporate and regulatory capture ahead of the will of the worker. Instead of galvanizing worker sentiment to move policy and manage proxies, major unions have taken to exploiting regulations in order to drag employees along from the comfort of the director’s chair. But by winning a seat on the Starbucks board, each of the SOC’s nominees would have had to confront an ugly choice: Make decisions that favor union density at the expense of worker autonomy and shareholder value; or own up to the damage that coercive organizing tactics have done to the corporation’s and employees’ interests. They were smart to withdraw their bid.
Starbucks and Workers United, long at odds, say they’ll restart labor talks
February 28, 2024 // Workers have voted to unionize at more than 370 company-owned Starbucks stores in the U.S., but none of those stores has reached a labor agreement with the company. The process has been contentious. In multiple cases, federal courts have ordered Starbucks to reinstate workers who were fired after leading unionization efforts at their stores. Regional offices of the National Labor Relations Board also have issued at least 120 complaints against Starbucks for unfair labor practices, including refusal to bargain and reserving pay raises and other benefits for non-union workers.
Starbucks union organizes record 21 stores in 1 day
February 22, 2024 // The organizing blitz is likely intended to pressure the coffee chain, which says it wants to reach contracts at all organized stores this year, during negotiations.
5 States That Have America’s Strongest Unions
February 15, 2024 //
Ranking Member Cassidy Releases Troubling Report Detailing Weaponization of NLRB Against American Workers, Demands Accountability
January 10, 2024 // Alarming reports highlight that under the Biden administration, the NLRB ignored its statutory obligation of neutrality and abused its authority by influencing union elections in favor of union organizers. In early 2023, a whistleblower came forward with information and documents alleging that NLRB regional officials in St. Louis, MO improperly coordinated with Starbucks Workers United (SWU) to tip union elections in favor of SWU. Following an investigation into the claims, the NLRB Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that NLRB officials in St. Louis engaged in “gross mismanagement” in an attempt to promote a union election victory at a Starbucks retail location. Similar allegations of improper election management have also been made at the NLRB’s Buffalo, NY office. As a result of its investigation, the OIG urged NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo to take steps to reform the NLRB’s regional offices engaged in improper conduct with SWU.
Amazon, Starbucks worker unions are in limbo, even as UAW and others triumph
December 29, 2023 // More than two years have passed since the first Starbucks stores voted to unionize in Buffalo, N.Y. Close to 380 Starbucks stores have since followed. But not one has a contract. Starbucks and Workers United, the union representing the vast majority of unionized Starbucks stores, have each accused the other of not bargaining in good faith.
Across the Midwest, unions are breaking through in a way they haven’t in decades
December 20, 2023 // Union members and labor experts agree that a collective sense of job insecurity and frustration over wages and working conditions are driving activity in the region.
Labor regulators seek to force Starbucks to reopen six L.A. stores
December 15, 2023 // The complaint filed by the National Labor Relations Board accused Starbucks of closing stores where workers had engaged in union activity and failing to participate in collective bargaining with unionized stores. Of the 23 stores, eight had active unions at the time they were closed. The NLRB said Starbucks should reopen the 23 stores and reinstate employees who were transferred to other locations, left the company or lost their jobs because of the closures. Employees should also be compensated for lost earnings and benefits, and time they may have spent searching for new jobs.