As major coffee employer Starbucks continues to drag its feet on hammering out contracts with its thousands of union-represented workers, non-union workers at three Central Florida locations will be joining a national day of action Thursday, Sept. 14, in protest of the company’s anti-union tactics.
“In the face of Starbucks’ attempts to crush the union, Starbucks workers have organized, gone on strike, and pressured the company to quit union busting,” a statement on one of the event listings on the Starbucks Workers United website reads. “Now it’s time for Starbucks customers and allies to join the fight.”
According to a map of stores participating in the action, three Starbucks locations in Central Florida — none of which have yet filed a petition to unionize — are joining the action, officially organized by Fight for 15 Florida (related to the Workers United union family), which will include rallying outside of the stores and providing information to customers about Starbucks’ behavior in the face of their employees exercising their protected right to organize.
Those locations are:
-
From 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.: Starbucks, 10870 West Colonial Drive, Ocoee
-
From 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.: Starbucks, 626 North Fern Creek Avenue, Orlando, FL
-
From 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.: Starbucks, 13304 West Colonial Drive, Winter Garden
Since December 2021, over 8,500 workers at more than 350 Starbucks locations nationwide have voted to unionize, with the majority voting to join Starbucks Workers United, a worker-led affiliate of labor union Workers United.
Union membership — which can deliver higher wages for workers on average, better benefits, and other workplace improvements — is practically non-existent in the largely low-wage food and drink service industry, so it’s a big deal that any restaurant and service workers have tried. They’ve inspired a national wave of union activism that’s also been felt here in Florida, where unions have recently faced legislative attacks.
Last June, a Starbucks location in Oviedo became the first location to unionize in Central Florida, and remains the only unionized location in the area today. Workers at another location in Winter Park also sought to unionize, but decided not to join the union in a narrow 5–8 vote.
Clay Blastic, a shift supervisor and union leader at the Oviedo location told Orlando Weekly while they considered joining tomorrow’s action, tomorrow is also a buy-one-get-one day at Starbucks locations (as part of a promotional deal), and they’re worried about being too short-staffed (a concern that, in general, has been shared by union workers at many stores).
“We’re in solidarity with the stores and communities holding the events,” Blastic shared in a text.
Starbucks workers actively involved with the union have shared a list of proposals with Starbucks that they’d like to negotiate, regarding things like salary, scheduling, credit card tipping, and healthcare.
Problem is, workers say Starbucks is making up excuses not to come to the bargaining table, while Starbucks is pointing fingers at the union.
Andrew Tull, senior communications manager for Starbucks, told Orlando Weekly in May that the company “remain[s] engaged and ready to bargain in-person with the unions certified to represent our partners according to longstanding NLRB precedent.”
But Starbucks’ record on how they’ve responded to their workers’ unionization efforts isn’t pretty. Rulings by the National Labor Relations Board and various types of judges across the country have ordered the reinstatement of at least 28 Starbucks workers they found to have been illegally fired in retaliation for union activity, The Guardian recently reported.
Starbucks has been found to have committed “substantial” violations of federal labor law, including at a store in Estero, Florida, by unlawfully firing pro-union workers, threatening to withhold job benefits, and surveilling workers at a number of stores across the U.S.
Related
Starbucks illegally withheld credit card tipping option from union workers, NLRB complaints allege
Engaging in unlawful union-busting tactics is common during union elections, but workers say Starbucks is also failing to bargain in good faith with them, thus undermining the union’s ability to achieve gains for its 8,500+ members and underscoring how the real fight begins after a union election (to get the contract), not before.
“Starbucks is doing everything in its power to ignore its unionized workers, but it has to listen to its customers,” Daisy Pitkin, field director of the Starbucks Workers United union drive recently told The Guardian. “We’re calling on customers to join the fight and stand with Starbucks workers on September 14.”
Related
Orlando union buster Labor Pros has a history of skirting federal law
Subscribe to Orlando Weekly newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | or sign up for our RSS Feed
Related Stories
Orlando union buster Labor Pros has a history of skirting federal law
Starbucks illegally withheld credit card tipping option from union workers, NLRB complaints allege
Sodexo management allegedly orchestrated a ‘no-union’ rally at Rollins College, after workers filed to unionize
Non-profit calls on Florida to release information on private schools accepting state vouchers
This article appears in Sep 13-19, 2023.
