Starbucks Workers United
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Starbucks Workers United is a labor organization based in Buffalo, New York and is an affiliate of Workers United Upstate. It was founded in August of 2021 when a group of 50 Starbucks baristas in Buffalo announced the formation of an organizing committee with the intent to file for a union election, and be recognized by Starbucks as representing Buffalo partners in arbitration. Starbucks Workers United aims to organize baristas, shift supervisors, and assistant store managers at Starbucks on a store-by-store basis.
August 23rd 2021: Just under 50 Buffalo-area Starbucks employees, through the Twitter handle @SBWorkersUnited tweet their letter to Kevin Johnson, announcing their unionisation. There were 20 Starbucks locations in the Buffalo area. With their petition, the ball was in motion for the unionisation effort of 3 full stores. If the unionisation vote succeeds, they will be the first stores ever unionised out of over 8,000 Starbucks locations in the United States.
August 28th: Starbucks Corporate launches mandatory paid meetings, called "listening sessions." In these meetings, store managers were holding one-on-one meetings with each employee in an attempt to hear what ongoing issues were occurring from the partners' perspectives.
Meanwhile, one of the three Starbucks stores involved in the efforts is closed.
August 30th: SBWorkersUnited announces that petitions have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold union elections in three stores in the Buffalo region. Should they win the vote with the NLRB, negotiations will begin.
Corporate Communications Senior Manager Jory Mendes is quoted in a news interview stating: "We firmly believe that our work environment, coupled with our competitive compensation and benefits, makes unions unnecessary at Starbucks."
A barista at one of the Buffalo stores says in an interview: "They call us partners, and tell us that we're partners. But there's no equality, so there's no true partnership."
August 31st: Corporate launches a counter-effort via mass-text, titled "Your Voice Matters." This is in direct response to the messaging used by the organisers, insisting that their voice already matters.
Around this time, Starbucks President of North America, Rossann Williams, begins to spend more time in the Buffalo region, not only in stores speaking to the employees but also handing out free $10 gift cards to customers. In a "listening session" with Rossann, a barista says he was told "the best way for the company to listen to the partners is not have something come between us." Source
September 8th: two more stores announce overwhelming support for a union and join the efforts, also petitioning the NLRB.
Another barista describes the situation as the following:
"Upper management has come to every store in the district. We're doing card signing on the floor, because that's our public space. But management is making people really nervous to talk about it. They're coming and talking to people on our breaks. They came to my store on Sunday, and cornered a worker."
At the same time, Rossann issues an internal memo titled "Message from Rossann for Buffalo area partners" which can be read HERE. //if this tweet/link goes down, lmk and i can repost it or share the text//
September 14th: Starbucks counters the initial election request with the demand to include all stores in the Buffalo region in the union vote, rather than the five that currently have majority for. The precedent set by the NLRB favours single-store units for union elections. A hearing is scheduled to decide on September 22nd.
September 16th: SBWorkersUnited tweets a selfie with Rosann Williams sweeping the floors in the store. Link to tweet
September 23rd: An awesome interview with one of the organising baristas is released. In it, they comment about the surveillance from corporate, the intimidation, and removal and replacement of management at all levels. Here is that link!
September 28th: The initial hearing between The Starbucks Workers Union, Corporate, and the NLRB is had. Starbucks Corporate submits an argument against the unionisation efforts, delaying the decision.
October 13th: Official word regarding store closures is released. Three stores in total are closed - two of them indefinitely, for training purposes, and one for "renovation." Two stores of the five in the efforts withdraw from the NLRB petition to attempt to speed up the vote process. This brings the unionisation efforts down to three stores again.
SBWorkersUnited tweets a photo an anti-union poster hung up in the back room. It alleges that signing a union card "may give up your rights to speak for yourself." It also states specifically, "By law, you have the right not to join a union and not sign a card if you don't want to." The wording is chosen carefully to sound threatening.
October 18th: Articles share reports that district managers are being sent from all over the country to spend time in Buffalo in an attempt to "save" Starbucks. NYTimes Article link
But more importantly, Rossann publicly releases a memo directly asking employees to vote no to a union. Another fun line in this release is, "I want to be clear that our actions in Buffalo are not about whether we are pro-union or anti-union. It's quite simply that we are pro-Starbucks partners."
October 22nd: One of the stores previously closed "indefinitely" for training purposes is suddenly announced a reopening date of November 8th.
October 27th: Rossann releases another memo making promises for the future of employees. Among these promises is a nationwide pay increase to $15 an hour base, a pay raise for existing employees on top of that, and additional scheduling hours to be added to ensure balanced staffing. There is no direct mention of the unionisation efforts.
October 28th: The NLRB decision is finalised in favour of the employees. This decision allows the stores to vote on a store-by-store basis, instead of Corporate's requested full-region vote.
The ballots will be sent out the night of November 10th, and employees will have until December 8th to return them. The ballot count occurs on the 9th.
At this moment, the NLRB has not determined if Assistant Store Managers can be included in the union efforts.
Nov 6th: Howard Schultz pays Buffalo a visit to host a meeting in a hotel conference area. Shortly afterwards, he shares this letter with the public. In a video from SBWorkersUnited on twitter, one barista can be seen attempting to speak up about their requests during the meeting, only to be hounded and shut down by corporate employees. Fortunately, her word gets across despite this.
November 10th: Per this tweet, Starbucks has used a mass-text service to send all employees a 3.5 minute video again urging employees to vote NO and implying that unions = loss of voice in dealings with Starbucks. Dues are mentioned twice, and the example ballot is marked as a NO vote, as a way to discourage voters from voting yes.
References[edit]
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