At the heart of the issue is the federal labor board’s authority to order Starbucks to rehire seven workers at a location in Memphis, Tennessee, that Starbucks is accused of firing in retaliation for organizing a union at their store.
The so-called “Memphis 7” were fired just days after announcing their intent to unionize with Starbucks Workers United, in what the workers say was a violation of their federally protected right to organize.
Starbucks, however, has claimed the workers were fired due to violating company policy by reopening a store after hours without consent and allowing journalists into the store.
The NLRB, an agency that’s been inundated with allegations of unfair labor practices against Starbucks, hasn't bought into the company’s explanation.
While an investigation into the firings is ongoing, a federal judge approved a request by the agency to order that the seven workers be reinstated. That was later upheld by an appeals court. Starbucks, however, has disputed the standard that allowed for the labor board to order that the company offer reinstatement to the workers.
All in all, at least 420 Starbucks locations across the United States, representing over 10,000 workers, have unionized since December 2021, including a single location in the Central Florida region — at the 305 E. Mitchell Hammock Road store in Oviedo.
Baristas at that store overwhelmingly voted to unionize in June 2022, citing a desire to advocate for higher wages — to keep up with the region’s higher cost of living — in addition to a credit card tipping option and other improvements to working conditions.
Roy Sistovaris, one of the earliest union activists at the store, previously told us that he and his co-workers were inspired by the Starbucks unionization wave spreading across the country, even early on.
“I just looked at one of my co-workers, and I was like, what if I just sent them [the union] an email? What if I just did it?” he recalled. “And she was like, ‘Hell yeah, man. Just do it.’ And I was like, man, whatever. So I did.”
Back then, just 70 Starbucks locations were unionized. Now, the number of unionized locations has more than tripled (with one of the more recent victories being at a Starbucks location in Miami).
And that’s despite frustrating delays in negotiating an initial union contract (also known as a collective bargaining agreement) that Starbucks has been accused of prolonging in an effort to weaken workers’ support for unionization.
Clay Blastic, a shift supervisor at the union Starbucks in Oviedo, told Orlando Weekly over text on Tuesday that he hopes the Supreme Court “makes the right decision” in the Memphis case. “But I’m not holding my breath,” he added.
Blastic also confirmed that — like other unionized stores across the country — workers at the Oviedo Starbucks did finally get their credit card tipping option back last week, after having that option formally rolled out at the store, before being taken away.
Essentially, this system means if someone wants to tip, they can do so when paying with a credit card, as opposed to only having a cash tipping option.
Back in May 2022, Starbucks caved to pressure from their employees to roll out a credit card tipping system at their nonunion stores, but claimed that they couldn’t offer this to union stores. Their argument was that such a thing would have to be negotiated through the collective bargaining process (which at that point, they were stalling).
According to the union, Starbucks just last month began (finally) implementing that at stores like Blastic’s (which, per the workers, actually did have that option until management remembered that they were union or something and took it away).
Blastic is one of the few union Starbucks workers who’s been chosen to represent unionized Florida locations in the collective bargaining process after literally years at this point of both the union and the company pointing fingers at each other over delays. In a text message, he told Orlando Weekly he’s flying up to Washington, D.C., today to kick things off.
Despite the legal battle, he said he hopes the company’s announced plans to begin bargaining with the union and to roll out credit card tipping at union stores is “a sign of good faith.”
Subscribe to Orlando Weekly newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | or sign up for our RSS Feed
