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starbucks union busting
The Starbucks Ruling Proves That Workers Can Only Rely on Their Own Power
You can shut the companies down because you do the work; all the rest of labor’s power flows from that.
Jun 15, 2024
In February, Starbucks finally agreed to sit down at the bargaining table with their workers’ union. They agreed to this not out of the goodness of their shriveled heart, but after being dragged by their hair, kicking and screaming and union busting the whole time. They agreed to bargain after the union spent two years organizing hundreds of stores, and filed hundreds of unfair labor practice charges against the company, and did strikes all over the country, and got Bernie Sanders to berate Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in front of a congressional subcommittee.
Starbucks did their absolute utmost to illegally fire and intimidate and retaliate against workers who were organizing, and then to stubbornly refuse to bargain in good faith with those who did, and to lie wildly about all of it the whole time. Thousands of Starbucks workers and thousands of their allies across the country had to fight and claw for months and years to get this $90 billion company just to sit down and begin negotiating, as they are required to by law.
That was all just to get to the bargaining table. I always chuckle now when I read the periodic joint statements released by Starbucks and the union, Workers United, because they all sound like the Hatfields and McCoys being forced at gunpoint to shuffle uncomfortably in front of the camera and say, “We continue to make good progress in this mutually agreed upon process.” The fact is that if Starbucks could purchase a magic wand for $50 million that would cause all of their company’s union members to catch long Covid and resign and allow the union to die, they surely would. They were brought to this point by the power of organized labor, and nothing less.
It only took a few years of the NLRB actually enforcing existing labor law for much of corporate America to decide that they are willing to throw the entire post-New Deal labor peace framework in the trash in order to stop it.
Even while Starbucks has been engaged in this, ahem, good faith bargaining, their case seeking to restrict the power of the National Labor Relations Board has been winding its way through the courts. On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled in Starbucks’ favor, in a case where the company complained that the NLRB’s demand that they reinstate seven workers in Memphis who were illegally fired for organizing was made according to an unduly burdensome standard. The ruling will restrict the ability of the NLRB, which, under Jennifer Abruzzo’s leadership during the Biden administration, has been an aggressive advocate of workers’ rights, to hold companies responsible for their retaliations against workers, which are so common and numerous that 99% of them never make the news.
I am not here to play legal analyst, except to point out (as many actual legal scholars will as well) that rulings like this are really political judgments on what the proper balance of power between workers and businesses are, not some sort of unbiased judgment flowing from a perusal of hallowed heavenly law. The Supreme Court may soon make things even worse for the NLRB thanks to more corporate-funded lawsuits attacking the agency’s power, which I wrote a bit about here. It only took a few years of the NLRB actually enforcing existing labor law for much of corporate America to decide that they are willing to throw the entire post-New Deal labor peace framework in the trash in order to stop it. The Starbucks case this week was only an appetizer. Gird yourself for worse.
Companies are tigers in cages. You can lock them in there and pet them and feed them for years, but let them out for one minute and they will eat you. That’s it.
Mostly, Thursday’s ruling, and everything that led up to it, is a fantastic illustration of a point that is very basic but that it is important to name and hold up and repeat at regular intervals, because it is always in danger of being obscured: Power is the only thing that gets workers under capitalism anything. Here we sit with an encyclopedia’s worth of labor law and 150 years of industrial relations history around us, and none of it means a damn thing. Companies would throw it all in the fire at the earliest opportunity, were such a thing to become politically possible. If you are a working person and you want fair wages and decent working conditions and a fair share of what your company produces and protections from exploitative treatment, the only way to get those things is to come together with your coworkers and exercise your collective power to withhold your labor. You can shut the companies down because you do the work. That is your power. All the rest of labor’s power flows from that. All the wage increases and workplace safety regulations and favorable NLRB rulings and pro-union politicians who will come sit on stage at the rallies exist only due to organizing and being willing to strike. Everything else can go away, but those things can’t. The ability to exercise that power resides exclusively in the hands of the workers. That is the seed from which the entirety of organized labor has grown.
This is one reason why the Starbucks Workers United are so admirable. Starting with nothing, they organized one store, and then another, and then dozens, and then hundreds, and they made a lot of noise in the media, and they pulled in their political allies, and they struck, and they built up such a wall of pressure that the company was finally forced to listen to them. Everything they have was won with labor power. Starbucks, the famously progressive company, tried to squash them at every turn, but wasn’t able to. But if conditions change, or if the union’s will to power flags, the company would jump right back up and try to squash them again. There is no such thing as permanent labor peace. Companies are tigers in cages. You can lock them in there and pet them and feed them for years, but let them out for one minute and they will eat you. That’s it.
It may sound weird to say, but I find the plainness of this dynamic comforting. There is no need for anxiety. All of the questions are answered up front. Will my company treat me fairly? No. Will the boss do the right thing and look out for us? No. Now that we have a union, can we take it easy? No. Now that we have a contract, can we assume the company will follow it? No. Won’t the company follow the laws that protect workers? No. Won’t the regulators and the courts enforce the laws that protect workers? No. Won’t the elected officials stand up on our behalf? No. Your employer will hold you down and drown you in a pool of the lowest possible wages unless you use your collective power to prevent that from happening. Better take care of yourselves, together.
There will be times and places when things will go workers’ way, and that’s nice. There will sometimes be nice bosses and supportive politicians and Jennifer Abruzzos at the NLRB, and that’s something to be enjoyed. But none of that, I promise you, lasts forever under capitalism. The pendulum will swing. Right-wing courts will wipe away your legal protections and greedy investors will install a cruel boss and racist voters will boot the friendly Congressman. No need to cry when it happens. We know it will happen. And we know, most importantly, that we still hold in our hands the power of our own labor. The one thing they can’t take away. We do the work. If they won’t do the right thing, we won’t work. And upon that foundation, we can build the whole thing over again.
Hamilton Nolan is the author of the book The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor. This piece is reprinted from his publication How Things Work.
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Customers, Allies Lead 'Starbucks Solidarity' Day to Support Workers
A New York City organizer said that "we're out here using the visibility we have to help Starbucks customers and people that like the company know that the company is preventing the workers from fighting for better pay and working conditions."
Aug 07, 2023
Starbucks customers and labor rights advocates across the United States on Monday led a day of action targeting locations of the coffee chain where employees have not yet joined the more than 8,500 workers who have formed unions at over 340 stores.
"We're asking Starbucks customers and allies to choose a nonunion store to support workers in their communities," explains the Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) website. "Adopting a store simply means holding a small flyering action to engage customers and passersby in the campaign through in-person connections."
Monday "is just the first of a series of national days of action to activate customers and allies to hold Starbucks accountable and demand the company lives up to their progressive values," the site adds. "Together, we'll send the message that we won't let up until Starbucks quits union-busting and starts respecting worker rights!"
Since workers at a Starbucks in New York state formed the coffee giant's first U.S. union in December 2021, the Seattle-based company has been repeatedly accused of illegal union-busting. Flyers being passed out at stores on Monday state that "Starbucks has broken labor law over 200 times."
SBWU asserted on social media that "the public deserves to know what's really going into the making of their daily sip."
Members of the New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO and Writers Guild of America (WGA), East were among those armed with flyers and posters outside U.S. Starbucks locations.
According to an ABC affiliate in New York City:
In the middle of the wet Monday morning commute, there was a line outside of one Midtown Starbucks, not for coffee, but for a show of support.
"We're out here using the visibility we have to help Starbucks customers and people that like the company know that the company is preventing the workers from fighting for better pay and working conditions," said Alex Iwinski, WGA union council member.
Meanwhile, New Yorker Mike Cassaday wrote on social media that he was reminding Starbucks customers in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood "that the company isn't as progressive as it claims to be."
The Chicago Federation of Labor had people at Millennium Station early Monday "educating folks about the fight for fair wages and working conditions at Starbucks!" the group said, adding that "management's union-busting is relentless and egregious."
Demonstrators used the hashtag #StarbucksSolidarity to share updates online, including from communities in Florida, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Washington state.
"We're in Seattle with Starbucks Workers United, union partners, and Starbucks customers telling Starbucks we won't accept their union-busting anymore!" declared Fight for $15. "By unleashing one of the most aggressive union-busting campaigns in modern history, Starbucks has shown what they think of the workers who make the company run."
So far, none of the workers who have successfully formed unions at hundreds of U.S. Starbucks have been able to finalize a contract with the company.
The Minnesota AFL-CIO on Monday thanked "everyone who showed up in St. Paul this morning to talk with customers about why it's long overdue for Starbucks to negotiate a contract with Starbucks Workers United."
The Starbucks day of action comes amid a wave of labor events throughout the summer, from the ongoing actor and writer strikes to practice pickets by United Parcel Service workers who were preparing for a historic walkout before UPS finally struck a deal with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters late last month.
Such action is set to continue on the West Coast with a 24-hour strike planned for Tuesday. The Los Angeles Timesreported that "SEIU Local 721, a union representing county and city employees across Southern California, said that more than 11,000 Los Angeles city workers will participate, including sanitation workers, heavy-duty mechanics, traffic officers, and engineers."
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Workers at World's Largest Starbucks in Chicago Announce Union Drive
"We are tired of seeing our coworkers burnt out, bullied, and mistreated every day," said an operations lead at the roastery. "We've tried expressing this to management, and we've been ignored and degraded."
Jul 14, 2023
Workers at the world's largest Starbucks in Chicago filed for a union election on Friday, joining more than 8,500 of the coffee chain's "partners" at over 330 locations across the United States who are fighting for the right to organize and contracts.
"We are tired of seeing our coworkers burnt out, bullied, and mistreated every day. I love my job, I love my coworkers, and I love the people we serve. I know we all deserve to experience the roastery the way it should be—as a space where everyone feels welcome, appreciated, and valued," said Jamie Williamson, operations lead at the Illinois store, in a statement.
"We've tried expressing this to management, and we've been ignored and degraded," Williamson added. "The only people we can rely on are our fellow partners. Now, we want to turn that trust into power to change the roastery for the better."
The Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Chicago takes up 35,000 square feet on the city's Magnificent Mile. The other two North American roasteries, in Seattle and New York City, both won their union elections last year—though none of the hundreds of newly formed labor groups nationwide have secured a contract with the company yet.
"The prospective bargaining unit includes about 230 baristas and mixologists who serve elaborate coffee-based drinks and cocktails, bakers who make pastries in-house, and operations leads who work in retail and customer service at the five-story caffeine emporium," according to the Chicago Tribune. "People who work roasting coffee at the Roastery are not retail employees and are not included in the unit."
Barista and mixologist Kyra Supnet said in a statement that "yes, we are the largest Starbucks with the largest number of partners that work here. Getting everyone together seemed impossible at first, but when you zoom out and see the bigger picture—you realize that everyone shares the same issues."
"Everyone in the space is equally as frustrated and some even more," Supnet continued. "But together we will stand together and become one voice that management can't ignore for much longer."
The Seattle-based company, which has over 32,000 stores across 80 countries, has come under fire from its workers, labor rights advocates, federal lawmakers, and the National Labor Relations Board for how it has responded to union drives in the United States since the first successful vote to unionize at a Buffalo, New York location in December 2021.
Starbucks spokesperson Andrew Trull told the Tribune that the company remains "committed to supporting our Chicago roastery partners."
"Our partners and their safety are core to our operation,” Trull said. "We work with urgency to address any reported issues that may impact the well-being of our partners and the experience we offer at our Chicago roastery."
The newspaper noted that "Starbucks has been found in violation [of] national labor law numerous times by administrative law judges over the course of the campaign, including in Chicago, where a judge found the coffee giant had illegally fired a Hyde Park barista who led the union campaign at his store and threatened workers at two cafes over their union activity. Starbucks is appealing that ruling; the coffee giant has generally denied accusations and findings of lawbreaking."
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