KNOXVILLE STARBUCKS WORKERS WIN UNION ELECTION

The store is the fourth unionized location in Knoxville.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 30, 2023

CONTACT

General: starbucksmedia@workers-united.org 

Local: Halle Harris, (615) 506-7832

KNOXVILLE, TN – Starbucks Workers United continues to expand its nationwide coalition of baristas organizing for better working conditions and fair representation. This week, workers at the Northshore & Pellissippi store in Knoxville, Tennessee, won union representation in a vote of 14-6, marking the fourth store to unionize in the city of Knoxville. Their win comes the same week that fellow Knoxville Starbucks Workers United member Maggie Carter testified before the U.S. Senate HELP Committee about the union-busting being undertaken by the Company.

The freshly unionized Knoxville Starbucks partners have joined the fight against the Company’s hour cuts, inadequate staffing, disregard for partner safety, and refusal to bargain with the union in good faith. They’re standing up to the faux-progressivism the Company continues to use in marketing despite consistently disregarding the concerns and well-being of their workers.

"The solidarity is strong at my store; we are a family and take care of each other as such. Our innate love for each other, for workers, and for partners around the world is why we were able to become a union,” said Halle Harris, a three-year partner, and organizer at the Northshore & Pellissippi location.

Former CEO Howard Schultz and Chair of the Board Mellody Hobson have launched a ruthless union-busting campaign that includes firing over 200 union leaders across the country and shuttering union stores. At least nine union leaders in the Volunteer State have been fired in retaliation for their organizing activity, and more have been forced out of the Company. 

Starbucks Workers United is the union drive that has taken the labor movement by storm. After a successful first year of the campaign that saw more new unions form in 12 months than any U.S. company in the last 20 years – over 290 stores representing more than 7,000 workers – partners around the country continue to diligently organize new workers, despite Starbucks’ best effort to thwart unionization. The NLRB has issued over 80 official complaints against the Company, encompassing over 1,400 violations and making Starbucks one of the worst violators of federal labor law in history.

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