Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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50 Starbucks workers in Buffalo are successfully forming a union-- the first in the U.S. for any corpo Starbucks location! (theguardian.com)
submitted by StomachGullible
sheep_heavenly 96 points 1y ago
> Brian Murray, a Starbucks barista for four months who signed onto the union organizing letter, explained how workers and customers are affected by understaffing problems. On the day the workers publicly announced the union drive, management came into his store to **speak with workers about what could be done to improve the workplace, which left him alone to manage the drive-thru for several hours**, a job that requires two workers.
You can't make this shit up lmao
You can't make this shit up lmao
sheep_heavenly 77 points 1y ago
> A spokesperson for Starbucks said in an email in response to the union organizing drive: “While Starbucks respects the free choice of our partners, we firmly believe that our work environment, coupled with our outstanding compensation and benefits, makes unions unnecessary at Starbucks. We respect our partners’ right to organize but believe that they would not find it necessary given our pro-partner environment.”
"We respect their right to organize, but also respect our right to quietly fire them for unrelated issues as soon as humanly possible. There's no need for a union, we change to be better for partners as soon as we're sued by people who publicize the issue enough!"
"We respect their right to organize, but also respect our right to quietly fire them for unrelated issues as soon as humanly possible. There's no need for a union, we change to be better for partners as soon as we're sued by people who publicize the issue enough!"
ShinyCharlizard 28 points 1y ago
I really hope that this is successful. Service workers need to be able to organize without fear of losing their jobs, not just at Starbucks. If this union drive is successful, it would really be able to give hope to others in food service.
georgecarlinsneice 21 points 1y ago
I am so proud.
howdudo 14 points 1y ago
comment for visibility
shikiP 12 points 1y ago
congratulations to them!
toto517n 10 points 1y ago
I thought ny Starbucks had a union?
sheep_heavenly 23 points 1y ago
Yeah it's not the first, but tbh I'm glad there's any press about it. Congrats to the buffalo baristas!!!
LilKaySigs 4 points 1y ago
I have read the Yelp reviews of my store, with many complaining about unhappy staff and long waits. Staff is unhappy and waits are unbearably long because corporate refuses to provide us the necessary resources to function properly in the name of profits. However, when you cut labor to make profits, you make your staff unhappy and unmotivated and thus you lose customers, which ultimately makes corporate lose profit.
StomachGullible [OP] 2 points 1y ago
> e Yelp reviews of my store, with many complaining about unhappy staff and long waits. Staff is unhappy and waits are unbearably long because corporate refuses to provide us the necessary resources to function properly in the name of profits. However, when you cut labor to make profits, you make your staff unhappy and unmotivated and thus you lose customers, which ultimately makes corporate lose profit.
Very true, but the work around is to rip and replace employees like little batteries a la Amazon warehouse workers.
They will just hire on a fresh and inexperienced barista to replace you when you are no longer productive enough. This is the new normal.
Very true, but the work around is to rip and replace employees like little batteries a la Amazon warehouse workers.
They will just hire on a fresh and inexperienced barista to replace you when you are no longer productive enough. This is the new normal.
burnedoutbarista 3 points 1y ago
i’m crossing my fingers for them, maybe if one store unionizes the rest of us can follow soon
StomachGullible [OP] 7 points 1y ago
Perhaps you should be having this conversation with your fellow baristas? Stores don't spontaneously unionize, you have to get organized.
burnedoutbarista 2 points 1y ago
i do in fact understand that, why would that stop me from hoping they are successful in unionizing?
darkwolf523 2 points 1y ago
Nice
bleachglommer 2 points 1y ago
OK but how come when I posted in this sub about a different Coffee store forming the nations largest Coffeehouse union, why does my post get deleted, and when I ask the mods why it was taken down do I get no answer?
https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/2021/08/23/colectivo-coffee-workers-vote-form-union-ibew-local-494/8249723002/
https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/2021/08/23/colectivo-coffee-workers-vote-form-union-ibew-local-494/8249723002/
StomachGullible [OP] 6 points 1y ago
Probably because it wasn't a starbucks store? It looks like the mods also shadow deleted my reply to this thread with a link to the SB union twit account.
StormTheParade 1 points 1y ago
It was actually the automoderator, to discourage direct links to twitter as it is often used in subreddits for witchhunting and brigades.
StomachGullible [OP] 1 points 1y ago
I figured there was a filter in effect. Totally makes sense why you have it flagging twitter links.
[deleted] 0 points 1y ago
[removed]
StomachGullible [OP] 2 points 1y ago
Yeah I don't know, I can see it from both ways. This is a starbucks sub for baristas but totally get that the mod wants to keep the focus on starbucks from a starbucks-barista mindset.
TheFriendlyFeminist 1 points 1y ago
Albany barista here wanting to know how we can also make this happen 🥰🥰
StormTheParade 3 points 1y ago
Look into a union organisation like IWW and speak with a representative.
Ultimately it boils down to you needing to get your store on board, while working with a representative. It *has* to happen at the store level first. Once your store successfully unionises (and note, it is very difficult thanks to corporate lmao) then you can eventually move on to getting other stores in your district to unionise, and on from there.
Ultimately it boils down to you needing to get your store on board, while working with a representative. It *has* to happen at the store level first. Once your store successfully unionises (and note, it is very difficult thanks to corporate lmao) then you can eventually move on to getting other stores in your district to unionise, and on from there.
StomachGullible [OP] 3 points 1y ago
I would reach out to the SB union folks mentioned in the article or an organization like the IWW to get started. They will be able to assist in organizing a union at your store.
The hardest part is just having the discussions with your fellow baristas and agreeing to move forwards to form the union.
The hardest part is just having the discussions with your fellow baristas and agreeing to move forwards to form the union.
[deleted] 1 points 1y ago
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