Posts tagged Starbucks Workers United
Starbucks must reopen College Avenue cafe, rehire workers, NLRB judge orders
July 10, 2023 // “Over the last eight months, we’ve had more than 900 partner absences,” the Starbucks representative told 14850 Today regarding the decision to close both remaining cafes this spring. “These stores have also seen a significant amount of partner turnover—more than triple our national store average. Further, we have been unable to retain partners in critical store manager and assistant store manager positions, and we have been unable to find the talent we need to fill these positions.”
Starbucks closures in Ithaca fuel union-busting claims
June 28, 2023 // NLRB…
Starbucks union says workers at more than 150 stores will strike over Pride decor
June 23, 2023 // Workers United has alleged instances in at least 22 states when workers have not been able to decorate. It says it filed an unfair labor practice charge over the alleged change in policy. The coffee giant said its policy on decorating has not changed and that it unwaveringly supports the LGBTQ+ community.
Starbucks union claims dozens of stores aren’t allowed to decorate for Pride
June 14, 2023 // Some Massachusetts workers were told there weren’t enough labor hours to schedule partners to decorate, the union said. Managers told employees in Maryland some people didn’t feel represented by the “umbrella of pride,” according to the labor group. In Oklahoma, workers were told restrictions on decorating were out of a concern for safety after recent attacks at Target stores, the union said. In late May, Target pulled some of its Pride merchandise, citing threats against its employees. Some of the retailer’s locations in the South also moved Pride collections to less visible areas on the floor. The Washington Post reported Target stores in at least five states were evacuated this weekend after bomb threats.
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.