STARBUCKS BARISTAS AT 21 STORES NATIONWIDE PETITION TO JOIN UNION IN CAMPAIGN’S LARGEST SINGLE-DAY FILING
Company’s Historic, Illegal Union Busting Effort Fails to Squash Momentum as Demand for Union Intensifies from Coast to Coast
NATIONWIDE — Starbucks workers at 21 stores nationwide Tuesday filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to join together in a union with Starbucks Workers United, marking the campaign’s largest single-day filing since its launch in 2021.
Workers at the 21 stores announced they are joining the historic wave of organizing at Starbucks in a letter sent Tuesday to Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan that highlighted erratic scheduling, unpredictable hours and other issues that motivated them to call for a voice on the job.
“Across the country management is cutting hours, writing inconsistent and unreliable schedules, and placing more and more work on fewer and fewer partners,” the workers wrote. “We ‘partners’ demand a say. We are the face of Starbucks. As employees, we deserve the same respect and dignity as the CEO.”
The baristas filing Tuesday at 21 stores employing more than 400 workers join the growing national movement of nearly 10,000 baristas at nearly 400 union stores organizing for a voice on the job to improve their working conditions, including living wages, fair scheduling and policies that respond to discrimination and harassment on the job.
“We believe in this company and we believe our voices, heard together, are important for the company’s success,” said Alex Taylor, a Starbucks barista in Madison. “Starbucks says it values our voices and prefers a direct relationship with us, but the only way we can have an authentic voice is when we speak together as a union.”
Workers from the following Starbucks stores filed for union elections today:
Little Rock, Ark.
Seal Beach, Calif.
Antioch, Calif.
San Jose, Calif.
Denver, Colo.
Longmont, Colo.
Chicago, Ill. (2)
Sulfur, La.
Grand Forks, N.D.
Reno, Nev.
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Garden City, N.Y.
Old Westbury, N.Y.
Columbus, Ohio
Denton, Texas
Kimball Junction, Utah
Christiansburg, Va.
Mill Creek, Wash.
Madison, Wis.
Monona, Wis.
The mass filing is part of ongoing grassroots effort by Starbucks workers who are organizing and taking direct action, demanding Starbucks end its illegal union-busting campaign and bargain a contract in good faith. In more than four dozen separate decisions, federal administrative law judges have found that Starbucks has committed more than 400 violations of federal labor law, including dozens of unlawful firings, refusal to bargain, and denying benefits and wage increases to union members that are offered at non-union stores.
Bloomberg Law reported last week that National Labor Relations Board administrative law judges have found labor law violations in 48 out of 49 cases against the company.
Since December 2021, nearly 400 Starbucks stores in 42 states and the District of Columbia have successfully formed a union — more than any other company in the 21st Century, as Starbucks Workers United has taken the industry and world by storm.