The yr of the strike is ending with a bang. Starbucks Staff United has introduced that employees at over 100 shops within the U.S. are embarking on a three-day strike beginning at present and ending December 18. The “Double Down Strike” will have an effect on Starbucks areas in a number of states, including the flagship Seattle Roastery, which is the place Starbucks CEO and famous union antagonist Howard Schultz often will get his espresso.
In an announcement to Eater, Starbucks Staff United says “the ‘Double Down Strike’, a nationwide unfair labor observe (ULP) strike, is the longest collective motion within the marketing campaign’s historical past and is the newest escalation in opposition to Starbucks’ ruthless marketing campaign of anti-union bullying.” This comes after a latest motion on November 17, the place over 1,000 Starbucks employees at greater than 100 shops went on strike on Pink Cup Day, Starbucks’s money-making “vacation” the place it provides away collectible vacation cups.
Other than not crossing the picket strains, SBWU has additionally requested clients to help their organizing efforts by not shopping for Starbucks Present Playing cards this yr, the union’s first request of consumers that goes past not visiting a Starbucks retailer for a day. Not all 100 shops occurring strike might be hanging for the complete three days, however employees might be rallying at hanging areas throughout the nation.
In an announcement to Eater, Starbucks says, “It’s unlucky that Staff United continues to unfold deceptive claims whereas disrupting the Starbucks Expertise that our companions and clients have come to like and anticipate. Regardless of these delay ways, we stay targeted on working collectively and interesting meaningfully and instantly with the union to make Starbucks an organization that works for everybody, and we urge Staff United to uphold their guarantees to companions by shifting the bargaining course of ahead.”
The escalation comes as Starbucks continues to shut unionized shops, SBWU notes, together with the Broadway & Denny location in Seattle, the primary Seattle location to prepare. Starbucks cited points like crime and public security as the explanation for the closure, however employees say it’s retaliation. “They’re doubling down on their union-busting, so we’re doubling down, too,” says Michelle Eisen, a barista and organizer not too long ago named one in every of Bloomberg’s most influential individuals of 2022, in an announcement. “We’re demanding honest staffing, an finish to retailer closures, and that Starbucks discount with us in good religion.”
SBWU additionally says that Starbucks has continued to disclaim advantages, resembling mortgage administration advantages and new paid depart advantages, to unionized shops (Starbucks maintains it legally can not supply new advantages to unionized shops with out first negotiating over them). “The newest [unfair labor practices] are the denial of bank card tipping to union shops, hours cuts and the closing of union shops,” Collin Pollitt, a barista and SBWU organizer in Oklahoma Metropolis advised In These Occasions. SBWU says the Nationwide Labor Relations Board has additionally filed over 45 complaints in opposition to Starbucks, encompassing 900 alleged violations of federal labor legislation.
In response to the corporate’s annual monetary report, the union is affecting the way it does issues. SBWU claims Starbucks has repeatedly tried to curb unionization by saying a union gained’t lead to larger wages. However the firm writes in a 2021 SEC report “if a good portion of our workers have been to change into unionized, our labor prices may improve and our enterprise could possibly be negatively affected by different necessities and expectations that would improve our prices, change our worker tradition, lower our flexibility and disrupt our enterprise.” It’s additionally clear Starbucks understands that its ongoing stance in opposition to the union may have an effect on its public picture: “Additional, our responses to any union organizing efforts may negatively influence how our model is perceived and have opposed results on our enterprise, together with on our monetary outcomes.”
You’d suppose that if the corporate’s report says union busting is unhealthy for enterprise, Starbucks would cease doing issues like strolling out of bargaining conferences and accusing the NLRB of collusion with the union. However a latest article within the New York Occasions tried to investigate why CEO Howard Schultz has been so antagonistic. “At Starbucks, Mr. Schultz’s resistance to a union seems to be a matter of self-image, in response to those that know him,” write Noam Scheiber and Julie Creswell. “He prefers to see himself as a beneficiant boss, not a boss who’s pressured to deal with workers generously.”
SBWU simply handed the primary anniversary of its first election victory, and employees are nonetheless in the midst of bargaining with the corporate over points like honest pay, COVID advantages, assured schedules, and Simply Trigger termination. The Double Down strike goals to attract consideration to stagnation with negotiations, and produce Starbucks to the desk to discount in good religion. So this weekend, bear in mind how straightforward it’s not to cross a picket line. There’s at all times Dunkin’.