FILE – Starbucks employees strike in front of the store in Mesa, Arizona, November 17, 2022. Starbucks workers across the United States plan to start a three-day walkout beginning Friday, December 16, 2022 as part of their campaign to form a union of the entire chain of coffee shops. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
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Starbucks workers across the United States began a three-day strike starting Friday as part of their campaign to form a union for the entire coffee chain.
About 1,000 employees at 100 locations planned to walk out, according to Starbucks Workers United, the group organizing the campaign. It will be the longest strike in the unionization campaign, which has been going on for a year now.
It is the second strike by Starbucks workers in a month. On November 17, workers at 110 locations in the United States walked out for a day. The move coincided with Red Cup Day, in which the company hands out reusable cups to customers who order a special Christmas drink.
Some 260 of the company’s 9,000 US locations voted to unionize late last year.
Starbucks opposes unionization, saying the company works best when it has a direct relationship with employees. But he says he respects the legitimate right of workers to protest.
Tori Tambellini, a union organizer who was a Starbucks shift supervisor until she was fired in July, said she will picket in Pittsburgh over the weekend. She said the workers are protesting understaffing and the company’s anti-union methods, which include closing down unionized locations.
Workers United noted that Starbucks recently closed the first location to unionize in Seattle, where the company is headquartered. The company said it closed it for security reasons.
Starbucks and the union have begun contract negotiations at about 50 locations, but have reached no agreements.
The process has been contentious. According to the US National Labor Relations Board, Workers United has filed 446 charges against Starbucks since last year, both for firing union organizers and the company’s refusal to bargain. For its part, the company alleges that the union violates bargaining rules by recording the sessions and posting them online.
So far, the disputes have apparently not affected sales at Starbucks, which reported in November that revenue rose 3% to $8.41 billion in the July-September quarter.
Source: El Nuevo Herald
