Starbucks Is Firing a Huge Number of Pro-Union Workers

https://www.vice.com/en/article/epzz9z/starbucks-union-busting-stores-protest

“They are firing union leaders across the country, cutting hours, bullying workers,” Starbucks Workers United told VICE News.

By Paul Blest August 4, 2022, 9:25am

Starbucks barista Austin Locke and his co-workers won a hard-fought campaign to unionize their Queens store on June 30, making their store one of hundreds of newly-unionized Starbucks across the country.

But just days later, Locke was fired—for an incident that took place several weeks earlier. He says he was let go in retaliation for his union activity, an allegation echoed by dozens of pro-union Starbucks workers around the country who have also been fired by the coffee giant.

Locke told VICE News that on June 8, a supervisor put his hand “firmly” on Locke’s chest to stop him from walking into a room, and then immediately apologized; Starbucks claims that video footage showed the supervisor didn’t touch Locke, but when Locke demanded to see the footage, a manager told him that Starbucks wouldn’t allow him to see it.

Locke also says that after he was fired, on July 5, nearly a month after the incident but just days after the store unionized, New York Police Department officers escorted him out of the building. "[The cops] came to the door, the door was locked and the managers went out to the front and then brought them in, and then the cops are basically just like, ‘They fired you, you have to leave, they say you’re trespassing,’” Locke recalled.

FULL story at link at top.



ACTIVISTS PARTICIPATE IN AN EVENT DUBBED THE UN-BIRTHDAY PARTY AND PICKET LINE FOR STARBUCKS CEO HOWARD SCHULTZ ON JULY 19, 2022 IN NEW YORK CITY. (MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/GETTY IMAGES)