Posts tagged Starbucks Workers United
One Small Union Is Stoking Much of the Militant New Graduate Worker Organizing
May 30, 2023 // With around 35,000 members, the UE is not a huge union. It was once the third-largest — and arguably the most left-wing and democratic — member of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, with around a half-million members in core industries, until it fell victim to postwar anti-communist purges, raids from other unions and plant shutdowns. But the union revived itself by the 1990s. Famously, UE workers at the Republic Windows & Doors factory in Chicago occupied their plant in 2008, and today the union boasts a range of affiliated locals across sectors and industries from California to Vermont.
Almost a year after successfully unionizing, this Appleton Starbucks’ employees are on strike
May 26, 2023 // This Wednesday and Thursday, employees of the 631 W. Northland Ave. Starbucks will be on the strike line at 7 a.m. demanding basic rights, including livable wages with consistent scheduling, safe and respectful workplaces and the right to organize without fear and intimidation. Last June, the same Starbucks location became the third in the state to successfully unionize for the same concerns they are striking over. The store is now among more than 300 locations nationwide represented by Starbucks Workers United, which organizers say is meant to create better and safer workplaces for all Starbucks employees.
Starbucks Union Demands Company Bargain A National Contract
May 24, 2023 // The company's insistence on separate contracts for more than 300 organized stores has made the process unworkable, union president says. Fox said Starbucks should agree to a broad contract that sets a national minimum wage, “fair scheduling” procedures, guaranteed minimum hours and an agreement for union elections moving forward, among other provisions. Regions and individual stores could then add supplemental agreements if they choose to. But Starbucks said Workers United should stick to negotiating individual contracts since the union has been organizing stores one by one.
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.
Group behind Starbucks’ unionization runs into its own labor problem
May 12, 2023 // The union behind the organization of Starbucks suffered an ironic role reversal Wednesday when its employees went on strike in a push for higher wages. The workers hit the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) with many of the same accusations an affiliate of the union has hurled at Starbucks and other restaurant employers. The employees, members of the SEIU’s Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), charged the parent group with delaying contract negotiations and trying to bust the subordinate union.
College Students Are Urging Their Schools Dump Starbucks Coffee Over Shutdowns of Unionized Cafes
May 12, 2023 // Pro-labor sit-in protest demands Cornell find a new vendor Closures are part of its store-fleet evaluation, company says Cornell’s Student Assembly ,
Starbucks Roastery Workers Move to Oust Union after One Year
May 11, 2023 // On May 9, 2023, Starbucks employee Caesar filed the decertification petition to obtain a vote on whether to remove the union, often called Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) from their workplace. After being unionized for just over one year, the workers have had enough of the union and believe they would be better off without it. Under the National Labor Relations Act, which the NLRB is charged with enforcing, workers must wait one year after a unionization vote before they can seek another vote, such as the decertification election Caesar and his coworkers have demanded.
One of the first Starbucks to vote to unionize now is trying to oust the union
May 5, 2023 // The store is down to 14 workers – 19 participated in the union vote – so about four of them would have to agree to file a decertification petition. But, in order for the union to be decertified, a majority of workers would have to vote that way.
Workers United Has an Alter Ego
April 4, 2023 // Workers United is the largest shareholder of “union controlled” Amalgamated Bank, and is frequently described as its majority owner given its unique control of the bank. Amalgamated reports investments to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that go against both the union and the bank’s self-proclaimed values. Both Workers United and the bank have put forth an image of progressive values and social responsibility. This image has helped Workers United popularize some of its major organizing campaigns, including efforts to organize baristas throughout the country.