The momentum to unionize Starbucks has grown so strong, a store in the company’s hometown of Seattle just voted to form a union. It’s one of nearly a hundred stores that are looking into organizing a union right now — but Starbucks is planning to fight back.1
Starbucks workers are standing up for their rights and their bosses are on the defensive. Just last week, Starbucks announced longtime CEO — and seasoned union buster — Howard Schultz will be returning to the company.2 The corporation is gearing up to fight the union with all it’s got.
The US must make it easier for employees to organize a union, and harder for corporations to interfere in the process. Right now Congress is sitting on the PRO Act: legislation supported by President Biden that would do exactly that. Show your solidarity for Starbucks workers and the labor movement by calling on Congress to pass the PRO Act!
Sign the petition: Pass the PRO Act!
From the very start of this unionization wave, Starbucks corporate has wielded hostile and possibly illegal tactics against unionizing workers. Just before workers at three Buffalo Starbucks locations voted on unionization, Starbucks corporate offices sent a letter to employees stating “we want you to vote no.”3
But Starbucks’ tactics go beyond hostility. Starbucks may have engaged in some anti-union activities that are actually illegal.
At least five Starbucks baristas working to organize their coworkers in Buffalo, NY have reported they were unfairly fired, possibly for pro-union activity.4
At a recent board meeting, Starbucks executives said they plan to continue the illegal practice of requiring baristas to attend meetings at which their bosses could “persuade” them not to vote for unionization. That’s an “unfair labor practice,” according to the NLRB — and against the law.2
The corporation’s annual report reveals what Howard Schultz and Starbucks corporate are so afraid of. It’s simple really: “If a significant portion of our employees were to become unionized, our labor costs could increase.”3
Starbucks executives are terrified of fairly compensating their employees. We stand with Starbucks workers in this fight, and demand that Congress changes current labor law, which makes it easier for a business to stop a union than for workers to organize one!
Sign the petition: Pass the PRO Act!
Sources:
- New York Times, “A Starbucks store in Seattle, the company's hometown, votes to unionize,” March 22, 2022.
- American Prospect, Starbucks Turns to Its Venerable Union-Buster,” March 17, 2022.
- Vice, “Starbucks Tells Unionizing Workers 'We Want You to Vote No,' November 2, 2021.
- New York Times, “Starbucks Is Moving to Oust Workers in Buffalo,” Union Supporters Say, March 2, 2022.