The Starbucks Era: Why Nonunion Employees Shouldn’t Worry about Unions… Or What Have They Don’t Say About Starbucks?

Starbucks has a consistent message when it comes to the subject of whether employees need a union because the company has always provided for them with good wages and benefits.

Berg is now more distrustful of Starbucks than ever before. They believe the raises and benefits that Starbucks is giving nonunion stores could be taken away at a moment’s notice. They’re fighting not only to get everything that’s been granted to nonunion stores, but to have all of it written into a union contract.

Reggie Borges said in a statement the company respects its partners’ right to organize, but it doesn’t believe the best future is created by a third party.

But those complaints and others have done nothing to deter Starbucks. Since then, Starbucks has unveiled even more benefits — including financial tools aimed at helping employees build savings and manage student loan debt — again, for nonunion stores only.

Unlike cafes and restaurants, credit card machines at Starbucks do not allow customers to add tips, which is why many baristas cite tipping as a central issue in their demands.

The fight against unionization: a battle for the new employees at a chain chain drug store in Buffalo, New York, according to a union spokesperson

In the months since returning as CEO, Schultz has doubled down on his opposition to the union. And during his tenure, the battle has intensified and turned ugly.

The company has posted flyers about these new benefits in back rooms of stores, including unionized ones. What should be good news for workers has muddied the union’s messaging and its efforts to expand to more stores. The point of a union was challenged by the new workers at unionized stores.

They get a little angry when they find out that they aren’t getting the benefits they are currently getting, says Gailyn Berg.

Berg, who uses the pronoun ” they”, became shift supervisor at the Falls Church store after leading the failed Starbucks union drive. Since then, turnover at the new store has been high. A lot of the original union supporters left for college or other jobs soon after the election. They have been replaced by people with little to no knowledge about the organizing effort.

Disheartened, Berg has backed away from the “gung-ho — gotta unionize them all!” They had embraced an attitude earlier in the year. They are still in the fight.

“We’re scared. We’re terrified,” says Jasmine Leli, a barista and union leader in Buffalo, N.Y. “We just want to go to work like everybody else and do our jobs and not have to worry [about] when the other shoe is going to drop.”

Seven workers were ordered to be reinstated by a federal judge. The judge ruled that the fired people had violated company policies, but Starbucks disagreed.

What are the penalties for violating the labor laws? Former Starbucks employee Tori Tambellini tells Harlow on a union busting trip to Pittsburgh

“The penalties for breaking the National Labor Relations Act are quite weak, and that’s a huge problem because it doesn’t really serve as a deterrent,” says Rebecca Givan, associate professor of labor studies at Rutgers University. The consequences are fairly mild so employers decide that it’s worth it to break the law.

“They don’t seem to really care about us at all,” Berg says. Howard has lost the trust of many of us that he really believed in, so he is busy doing his thing, and not acknowledging it.

Schultz seems satisfied with all this progress and is preparing to exit the company once again. Starbucks has named Laxman Narasimhan as its new CEO, meaning he will be in charge of the company next spring.

Starbucks revenue was better than anticipated in the third quarter. Customer loyalty — measured through the growing number of Starbucks rewards members — remains strong. The company predicted growth of 3% to 4% annually over the next few years.

“We’ve been planning for months,” says Leli, who sits on the committee and has worked to gather input from thousands of employees around the country. We want to make sure people feel heard and seen.

Tori Tambellini, a former Starbucks shift supervisor and union organizer who was fired in July, said she will be picketing in Pittsburgh this weekend. Tambellini said workers are protesting understaffed stores, poor management and what she calls Starbucks’ “scorched earth method of union busting,” including closing stores that have unionized.

He told Harlow that his belief is that the efforts of unionization in America are part of a larger problem. “There is a macro issue here that is much, much bigger than Starbucks.”

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee asked the CEO of Starbucks to testify in an upcoming hearing on Starbucks’ compliance with labor laws. Starbucks announced that its chief public affairs officer would be attending instead.

When Schultz re-joined the company last year, he spent months visiting with employees as part of a listening tour that helped him develop a new roadmap for the company, which he said had “lost its way.”

Especially during the pandemic, “some decisions were made that I would not have made,” he said, without specifying which. When asked for more information, the spokesman pointed to the start of training programs in 2022.

But that’s likely not the case, said Rebecca Givan, associate professor of labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.

How do Chinese companies think China is an enemy of America? A response of Givan Schultz to the union-dominated US-China dialogue

“I’m sure there’s a large number of people who are interested [in unionizing], but afraid,” she said. “We know, just from general polling data, that many, many workers are interested in organizing collectively or in being represented collectively.” This is especially true among younger workers, she said.

As a CEO, Givan said, Schultz has responded very often in his opposition to the union. “I think every corporate leader takes it personally and when their workers organize, even though they really shouldn’t,” she said.

“I don’t believe China is an enemy of America,” Schultz told Harlow, describing it instead as a “fierce adversary, especially economically.” There needs to be a strong strategic relationship between the Chinese government and the American government.

Starbucks exited the country last year because of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, and Schultz doesn’t see the company ever going back. “I think Starbucks is gone from Russia for good,” he said.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/21/business/howard-schultz-unions/index.html

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