It all started in Buffalo, New York, with a group of scrappy Starbucks baristas and union organizers, imbued with the sheer grit and willpower it takes to stand up against a Goliath of a multinational company that’s willing to spend millions of dollars on professional union-busters to keep its cafes union-free.
That’s the story told by the 2025 documentary film Partners: How Starbucks Baristas Started a Labor Revolution, a production of Blanket Films funded with the support of Working Films.
Of local interest, a screening of the elusive documentary (i.e., not yet available to watch on streaming platforms) is coming to Orlando next week. Central Florida Jobs With Justice, a coalition of labor, faith, social justice and community groups, is organizing a screening of Partners Wednesday night, Aug. 12, in partnership with local unionized Starbucks baristas at a location disclosed only to those who RSVP for the event at bit.ly/partners-film.
“Partners takes you to the front lines of the campaign that sparked America’s Gen Z labor revival”
Nationwide, nearly 700 Starbucks locations have unionized since 2021, when baristas in Buffalo clinched the first organizing victory for their union, Starbucks Workers United. Locally, there are two unionized locations in Central Florida: a unionized Starbucks in Oviedo (305 E. Mitchell Hammock Road) and another near the tourism district in Orlando (State Road 535 & Vistana Centre). Florida is home to 13 unionized locations altogether.
“Featuring on-the-ground footage from workers and organizers, Partners takes you to the front lines of the campaign that sparked America’s Gen Z labor revival and inspired over 11,000 Starbucks workers nationwide to organize,” Central Florida Jobs With Justice wrote in an Instagram post promoting their event.
Many of the Starbucks baristas that have helped catalyze this years-long organizing movement have been young, politically progressive, LGBTQ+ baristas who were initially drawn to their jobs at Starbucks for job benefits like college tuition assistance and coverage for gender-affirming care.
But Starbucks, a multinational multimillion-dollar corporation, has for decades taken a scorched-earth approach to efforts to unionize its cafes — despite its progressive branding — and its latest campaign against Starbucks Workers United has been no different.
With help from union lawyers, baristas have filed hundreds of unfair labor practice complaints against Starbucks in recent years — and staged protest actions — over alleged disciplinary actions, firings and other illegal forms of retaliation against baristas for their pro-union activities, in violation of the National Labor Relations Act.
This documentary promises to share the inside story — the trials and tribulations of the early organizing days during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the moments of hope, inspiration and solidarity that convinced workers around the country that building a strong union to address issues such as understaffing, stagnant pay and unaffordable healthcare coverage was worth fighting for, even in the face of Starbucks’ aggressive anti-union tactics.
You can catch the Partners documentary screening this upcoming Wednesday, Aug. 12, from 7 to 9 p.m. with a Q&A session to follow. RSVP for the location at bit.ly/partners-film.
