Starbucks workers plan 3 day strike part of effort to unionize

Starting Friday, Starbucks workers around the U.S. are planning a three-day strike as part of their effort to unionize the coffee chain’s stores.
According to Starbucks Workers United, the labor group organizing the effort, more than 1,000 baristas at 100 stores are planning to walk out. The strike, which will be the longest in the year-old unionization campaign, is set to begin tomorrow.
Some stores will be entirely shuttered due to the strike while others will remain open with the help of managers or other workers.
Friday morning, a message seeking comment was left with Starbucks.
U.S. workers at Starbucks have gone on strike for the second time in a month. On November 17, workers at 110 Starbucks stores held a one-day walkout. The effort coincided with Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day, when the company gave reusable cups to customers who ordered a holiday drink.
Since late last year, more than 264 of Starbucks’ 9,000 company-run U.S. stores have voted to unionize.
The company functions better when it works directly with employees, according to Starbucks, who opposes the unionization effort. The company said last month that it respects employees’ right to protest, which is lawful.
“I will be picketing in Pittsburgh this weekend,” said Tori Tambellini, a former Starbucks shift supervisor and union organizer who was fired in July. “Tambellini said workers are protesting understaffed stores, poor management and what she calls Starbucks’ “scorched earth method of union busting,”” Tambellini said, “including closing stores that have unionized.”
The first store to unionize in Seattle, the company’s hometown, recently closed, noted Workers United. Starbucks said that the store was closed for safety reasons.
About 50 stores have begun contract talks, but no agreements have been reached between Starbucks and the union.
The process has been full of arguments. At least 446 unfair labor practice charges have been filed against Starbucks by Workers United since late last year, including claims that the company fired labor organizers and refused to bargain. Meanwhile, the company has filed 47 charges against the union, including allegations that it defied bargaining rules when it recorded sessions and posted the recordings online.
So far, Starbucks’ sales haven’t appeared to be dented by the labor disputes. In November, Starbucks said that its revenue rose 3% to a record $8.41 billion in the July-September period.