We believe that the best way to truly inspire and nourish the human spirit is to organize for greater justice, greater equality, and a greater vision of what life can be for Starbucks workers across the United States and for workers in the coffee and restaurant industry.

As Starbucks Workers United, we are organizing a union to bring out the best in all of us. Our organizing committee includes Starbucks partners from across the United States. Many of us have invested years of our lives at Starbucks, while others have recently become partners. We all have one thing in common — we want the company to succeed and we want our work lives to be the best they can be.

We believe that there can be no true partnership without power-sharing and accountability. For this reason, and through discussing our shared experience working at Starbucks, we have come to the conclusion that organizing a union is the best way to truly contribute meaningfully to this partnership and both ensure that our voices are heard and ensure that when we are heard we have equal power to affect change and get things done.

We are “partners” becoming partners.

Starbucks is the leader in the coffee industry, and one of the most successful and companies in the world. We want to share in that success, and we want to have a voice in determining what that looks like for us. We think there is a disconnect between corporate and us. The company says that partners come first, but all too often puts profits above all else.

We are not anti-Starbucks. We are organizing for a better Starbucks! We know what it takes to make this company run, and we know best what we need to be able to do our jobs to the fullest. We want to be able to be our best selves, and we cannot reach our full potential if we are understaffed, overextended, exhausted, and burned-out. We are organizing because we know that Starbucks partners have the ability to improve this company, transform this industry, and form a collaborative, creative, forward-thinking, justice seeking, independent organization that will allow us to advocate for ourselves.