What the unions have to say about Starbucks — past, present, future, and future: An update on the NLRB workers’ frustrations with Starbucks
A negotiating committee made up of 50 Starbucks employees is meeting weekly to plan out strategies for upcoming talks. Health and safety and nondiscrimination in the workplace are some of the topics they have begun to address.
So far, NLRB regional offices around the country have issued 35 formal complaints against Starbucks, citing the company for coercing, threatening and firing employees over their union activities and withholding wage increases and benefits from unionizing stores.
“We respect our partners’ right to organize but believe the best future is created directly with partners and not a third party,” company spokesman Reggie Borges said in a statement.
To prove the point, back in May, Schultz announced raises and a slate of new benefits for Starbucks employees, including faster sick time accrual, expanded training opportunities and credit card tipping.
Many baristas have complained that tipping is a key issue, because credit card machines at Starbucks do not allow or prompt customers to add tips.
“We do not have the same freedom to make these improvements at locations that have a union or where union organizing is underway,” Schultz told shareholders at the time.
There are flyers posted about the new benefits in back rooms of stores. What should be good news for workers has mudded the union’s messaging. It has led the new workers at unionized stores to question the point of a union.
“They kind of get a little angry because they’re like, ‘Well, how come we’re not getting these benefits?'” says Gailyn Berg, who works at a unionized Starbucks in Falls Church, Va.
Berg was transferred to the Falls Church store after he spearheaded a failed union drive at another Starbucks store 10 miles away. Since then, turnover at the new store has been high. Some Union supporters left for college after the election. They’ve been replaced by newcomers who don’t know much, if anything, about the organizing effort.
Disappointed, Berg has decided to not unionize them all. attitude they’d embraced earlier in the year. But they haven’t abandoned the fight.
“We’re scared. “We’re terrified,” says Jasmine Leli, a barista and union leader. We only want to work like everybody else and not worry about when things are going to fall, because that’s how we should work.
A federal judge in western Tennessee ordered the company to reinstate the seven workers. Starbucks said it disagreed with the judge’s ruling, maintaining that those fired had violated company policies.
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“The penalties for breaking the National Labor Relations Act are quite weak, and that’s a huge problem because it doesn’t really serve as a deterrent,” says Rebecca Givan, associate professor of labor studies at Rutgers University. “Employers decide that it’s just worth it to break the law because the consequences are fairly mild.”
Berg says that they seem to not care about them at all. Howard Schultz is very busy trying to just do his thing and not acknowledging the fact that he has lost faith in a lot of us.
Schultz seems satisfied with all this progress and is preparing to exit the company once again. Laxman will take over as CEO in the spring of next year.
So far, the labor disputes haven’t appeared to dent Starbucks’ sales. Starbucks said in November that its revenue rose 3% to a record $8.41 billion in the July-September period.
Leli, who sits on the committee and has worked to gather input from thousands of employees around the country, said they’ve been planning for months. “We want to make sure everyone feels seen and heard.”
Tori Tambellini, a former Starbucks shift supervisor and union organizer who was fired in July, said she will be picketing in Pittsburgh this weekend. Workers have protested understaffed stores, poor management and the Starbucks’ method of union busting, including the closing of stores that have unionized.