basquebromance
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- Nov 26, 2015
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For the fifth time, the National Labor Relations Board has filed charges against Starbucks for illegal firings of union supporters, claiming the company has repeatedly violated labor law in its attempts to destroy the fledgling union
The company’s retaliatory campaign has made numerous steps to slow the union drive to a halt after an exponential increase in the number of stores filing to unionize late last winter and into the spring following a successful drive at the Elmwood location in Buffalo, New York, where SBWU won its first election last year on December 9
Beyond firings, the anti-union assault since then has included providing new, better benefits and quicker raises to nonunion stores and unilateral changes to requirements for worker availability. Starbucks has placed hostile managers in stores including one in Boston, who provoked a nine-week strike, and another in South Carolina, who accused workers of kidnapping and assault during a march on the boss.
In one New York store, Starbucks workers accused the company of refusing to adequately address health and safety issues like black mold and bedbugs, again leading workers to go on strike. The company, vaunted for its trans-supportive health care, has also used the very benefits it offers as a weapon with which to threaten trans workers. In some places, including Ithaca and Seattle, it has closed stores entirely
under Joe Biden, the NLRB has been aggressive by US standards in supporting the process that allows workers to unionize. For example, the board ruled that individual stores could unionize rather than forcing Workers United, the parent union of Starbucks Workers United, to organize multiple stores at once.
In contrast to tactics that primarily rely on lawyers and courts, more recently, Starbucks Workers United turned to a nationally coordinated strike on one of the company’s busiest days, a very different strategy than SBWU has relied on for most of the last year, despite frequent store-level work stoppages and some regional actions.
Questions over tactics will likely define the success or failure of the campaign moving forward. For now, workers like Chuquillanqui are benefiting from having, in the NLRB, a fair referee for their organizing drive.
The company’s retaliatory campaign has made numerous steps to slow the union drive to a halt after an exponential increase in the number of stores filing to unionize late last winter and into the spring following a successful drive at the Elmwood location in Buffalo, New York, where SBWU won its first election last year on December 9
Beyond firings, the anti-union assault since then has included providing new, better benefits and quicker raises to nonunion stores and unilateral changes to requirements for worker availability. Starbucks has placed hostile managers in stores including one in Boston, who provoked a nine-week strike, and another in South Carolina, who accused workers of kidnapping and assault during a march on the boss.
In one New York store, Starbucks workers accused the company of refusing to adequately address health and safety issues like black mold and bedbugs, again leading workers to go on strike. The company, vaunted for its trans-supportive health care, has also used the very benefits it offers as a weapon with which to threaten trans workers. In some places, including Ithaca and Seattle, it has closed stores entirely
under Joe Biden, the NLRB has been aggressive by US standards in supporting the process that allows workers to unionize. For example, the board ruled that individual stores could unionize rather than forcing Workers United, the parent union of Starbucks Workers United, to organize multiple stores at once.
In contrast to tactics that primarily rely on lawyers and courts, more recently, Starbucks Workers United turned to a nationally coordinated strike on one of the company’s busiest days, a very different strategy than SBWU has relied on for most of the last year, despite frequent store-level work stoppages and some regional actions.
Questions over tactics will likely define the success or failure of the campaign moving forward. For now, workers like Chuquillanqui are benefiting from having, in the NLRB, a fair referee for their organizing drive.
