Louisville, Elizabethtown Starbucks Workers File for Union Elections
Workers join the movement in solidarity with striking workers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2023
PRESS CONTACT
Local: MC Floreani, mfloreani@cmrjb.org, (512) 787-7357
National: starbucksmedia@workers-united.org
Louisville, KY — Early Wednesday morning, the hourly workers at Starbucks, located at 1703 N Dixie Hwy, Elizabethtown, KY and 3103 S 3rd St, Louisville, KY 40214, petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for an election and demanded union recognition from CEO Howard Schultz and local management. An overwhelming majority of workers at both stores signed union authorization cards and a petition demanding union recognition.
The 3rd St baristas are the fifth Starbucks workforce in the Louisville metro area to join the Starbucks Workers United movement that has swept across the country while the Dixie Highway workers are the very first outside of Louisville to petition. Workers at the international coffee chain have filed for elections at hundreds of locations across the country and have won representation in nearly three hundred.
These coffee workers joined in solidarity with their union siblings at striking Starbucks locations across town in demanding dignity, respect and improvements at their workplace. Baristas at stores in LaGrange, and Baxter Station walked off the job today alongside 100+ other union shops to fight for a fair contract. The Dixie Highway café is staffed by a diverse workforce, giving them a unique perspective and demands of their employer. In a letter signed by a majority of the workers and e-mailed today to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, the staff expressed clear resolve in organizing their workplace:
“Baristas and Shift Leaders at our hard working store have finally reached their limits. Partners must scrounge and barter with one another for the hours they need just to make ends meet. We fear losing benefits due to lack of hours and poor scheduling. Not to mention, some fear losing hours so much that they actively avoid taking time off because they’re afraid of what their schedule might look like when they return. Trans Partners, in particular, are lured in by the tantalizing advertising that Starbucks boasts some of the most inclusive health insurance of any company. Yet, we here in Etown must fight to get even a fraction of the hours we were promised at hire to keep the health care we need to survive.”
Sean Sluder, a barista at the Elizabethtown location, voiced similar concerns:
“I came to work at Starbucks entirely because of all the press about how inclusive their policy was when it came to benefits, specifically relating to trans people. Knowing there was somewhere that I could go that would fight for me to get anything I wanted or needed sounded too good to be true, and week by week it seems like that might be the case. Now that I have the insurance, it's a struggle to get enough hours to keep it. It's starting to feel more like a marketing tactic than a desire to truly help trans people.”
Across the country, Starbucks workers are organizing with Workers United (SEIU). Please contact MC Floreani at (512) 787-7357 or mfloreani@cmrjb.org to arrange interviews with Starbucks workers.
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