Posts tagged Starbucks Workers United
Cornell to Stop Serving Starbucks Coffee After Company Shut Down Unionized Cafes
August 21, 2023 // In May, Starbucks Corp. announced it would close its last two unionized corporate-run cafés in Cornell’s hometown of Ithaca, New York. It had previously shuttered the other location that organized. In response, Cornell’s student government passed a resolution, and activists staged a sit-in demanding that the university cease serving Starbucks coffee at its own cafés in response to the alleged union-busting. “Cornell Dining does not intend to serve Starbucks Coffee in its café venues after the current agreement with the company expires in 2025,” the school’s vice president for university relations, Joel Malina, said in an email. The university will instead consult with the student government on an “inclusive process” to transition to a new vendor.
Starbucks’ ‘overbroad’ workplace civility rule oversteps NLRA, Board rules
August 17, 2023 // On the heels of its Stericycle ruling, which increased scrutiny of employer handbooks, NLRB said Starbucks must rescind its “How We Communicate” workplace policy.
California’s on the cusp of transforming America’s fast food industry — again
August 16, 2023 // “Because it’s so many stores, and going store to store would be difficult, the path to unionization here is basically through legislation,” said Brandon Dawkins, SEIU 1021 vice president of organizing. “After we get the council together and force the employer to the table, then the unions — we can come in and really sit down and negotiate with the corporations to, number one, create a union and, number two, address issues like safety and wage theft.” A labor council’s purview extends to workplace conditions like predictable scheduling — a longstanding goal for labor — noted California Labor Federation Executive Officer Lorena Gonzalez, a former state lawmaker who carried an earlier version of the bill when she served in the state Assembly. “If you get joint employer liability, it’s more likely McDonald’s would want to talk about a national agreement or strategy because now they’re on the hook for every labor violation,” Gonzalez said. That tactic has angered restaurant operators who have rallied against the legislation. Marisol Sanchez, a second-generation McDonald’s franchise owner, has appeared in advertising opposing the 2023 bill. Sanchez said she believed SEIU was acting on its own political agenda rather than in response to worker demands.
Greenville, SC Starbucks Employees Latest to Demand Vote to Remove SBWU Union from Workplace
August 15, 2023 // Bory and her coworkers’ effort is the latest in a chain of SBWU decertification pushes across the country. In just the past few months, Starbucks employees in Manhattan, NY, Buffalo, NY, Pittsburgh, PA, Bloomington, MN, and Salt Lake City, UT, have all sought free Foundation legal aid in pursuing their decertification petitions at the NLRB. The flurry of decertification attempts is occurring roughly one year after SBWU union agents engaged in an aggressive unionization campaign against the coffee chain’s employees. Federal labor law forbids workers from decertifying a union for a year after a union’s installation, meaning many workers are seizing on the earliest possible opportunity to rid themselves of the SBWU union’s “representation.”
After unionizing last summer, some Utah Starbucks workers now want out
August 4, 2023 // Before a petition can be filed, federal labor law says a year must pass after a successful union vote and 30% of a location’s workers need to support decertification. The National Right to Work Foundation, which is providing free legal representation to the workers who support the petition, said a contingent of the store’s workers don’t want the union to have “monopoly representation powers” when negotiating with the company. “They called us,” said foundation president Mark Mix. “They walked through this process and we [are helping] them get an election. That's the goal, not to put our thumb on the scale one way or the other, but just get the election so that their voices can be heard in the workplace.”
Local baristas strike for better wages and benefits
July 18, 2023 //
House GOP probes union over Starbucks barista who kept labor ties from Congress
July 17, 2023 // Eisen, who represented herself to lawmakers only as a Starbucks worker, disclosed in a labor organization form that she was paid $49,734 by the Service Employees International Union affiliate in 2022, The Post exclusively revealed in May. “On her Truth in Testimony form, Ms. Eisen represented herself exclusively as a Starbucks barista,” Foxx wrote to Workers United International President Lynne Fox. “Members of the Committee and public observers would have benefitted from knowing whether Workers United was paying Ms. Eisen as an organizer at the time of the hearing.”
Starbucks union wants to enlist customers to organize pickets
July 10, 2023 // The Workers United union plans to hand out flyers during a 13-city bus tour to customers with a QR code that takes them to a sign-up sheet to organize their own protests during a "national 'Adopt-a-Store' day of action" on Aug. 7, according to copies of the flyers seen by Reuters. "(Employees) voted for bargaining not buses," the company said, adding that stalled negotiations have led workers to be so frustrated that they filed petitions to kick out the union at several stores. The union's tour has two legs: one travels through the Midwest, South and East, while a second leg will run up the Pacific coast, arriving in Seattle around Aug. 7, the union said. The tour will also target Starbucks board members such as Land O'Lakes CEO Beth Ford, whose likeness was carved into a statue made of butter that union members delivered to the creamery's Minneapolis headquarters in April.