“I am organizing out of respect for myself and my coworkers, in solidarity with the other Starbucks stores to unionize so far, and in honor of all the workers that have been fighting for hundreds of years for the right to organize,” said barista and organizer at the Aurora location Livia Proctor in a statement. “I think everyone should know the pride and satisfaction of fighting for oneself, because everyone should know that their voice is worth fighting for.”
Five other Starbucks locations in the greater Cleveland area and 11 other locations in Ohio have already filed for unionization with Starbucks Workers United, a collective of United States Starbucks Partners with more than 300 union stores and 7,500 employees.
Although unionizing efforts have spread across the national chain’s store, critics say that Starbucks itself has been resistant to the changes and accuse the company of anti-union action.
Workers have lodged more than 500 unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks with the NLRB. Starbucks received the most (NLRB) cases of any private company over the preceding year. Although it employs roughly half as many workers as UPS, its closest peer, Starbucks had 30% more complaints.
“Partners across the country continue to organize despite Starbucks’ illegal union-busting efforts,” said Starbucks Workers United in a statement. “The NLRB has issued over 80 official complaints against the Company, encompassing over 1,400 violations and making Starbucks one of the worst violators of federal labor law in history.”
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This article appears in Apr 19 – May 3, 2023.