Labor board accuses Starbucks in union case

The National Labor Relations Board has accused Starbucks of breaking the law 30 times in fighting union activity at four of its coffee shops in Manhattan. The labor board says Starbucks managers at the four locations had retaliated against workers supportive of unionizing by firing two of them, threatening to terminate others and giving several workers negative performance evaluations. A Starbucks spokeswoman says: "We believe the allegations are baseless, and we will vigorously defend ourselves." (New York Times | No-registration summary | NYT blog post)

Comments

[jabanga]

that's what they always say.

[G]

As someone who worked for the company for 4 years (I got out just as it started going south) I'm surprised they aren't sued more often.

The Northeast region is really awful. I worked in MA and have friends still working for the company who are constantly dealing with the incompetence of managers, DMs and the RM. One friend is connected in Seattle (so much so that he has met Schultz on several occasions) and people out there are even willing to say so.

If they want to know why partners get angry its simple. The "rules" change constantly ("deployment" is a joke), they don't want to fully staff shifts, they play games with peoples hours, and they hire managers from outside rather than promoting people who actually know how to do the job.

Also having 7 managers in 4 years is ridiculous. Especially when the last three could barely make a cappucino.

G well its been said before...retail is tuff and turn over is high. Managers are not hired to be baristas they are hired to manage.

[mr. block]

union? lets get serious here this is a low wage job. I applied for it know this and i don't think it will change. i am going to stick to learning the rules and study my way through the coffee journey. i hope to be a DM one day.

[Seattle]

Wah, wah, and wah.

[Darleen]

Mr. Block,
With that attitude I am sure you will reach your goals. Good luck to you in your journeys!!!!

The only thing for sure in life is change. Anything static will die. Remember Starbucks is growing not dying as ignorant talk will have you believe. If you can't flow with it you should reconsider your career options. Relax and remember a change you dislike today will be gone soon enough because the only thing for sure is change. P.S. Starbucks does not hire full time baristas and usually shifts only work 26-32 hours. It's part time work so it should not be an area of concern for Unions. No one is expected to raise and support a family by being a barista at SB. Resistance is futile.

A Borg Lodge Member

[0peratoshift]

A manager retaliate?

nooooooooo wayyyyy.
(that was sarcasm for those of you who couldn't tell)

ZEROpeRATIOshift

[GRANDESIZED]

While no company is perfect, with our benefits for part-timers and above-average pay (ok, so you won't be making a down payment on that condo with your wages- i get it...Sbux is essentially high-end fast food- gasp! -but with tips it does pay signifigantly mor than a Mickey D's or BK)why has the IWW targeted Sbux as the place that needs unionization?

It's because Sbux is a high-profile company and being responsible for unionizing it will be really good for the IWWs business. At the end of the day, even unions are just businesses...

[T]

G, I sympathize. I work in another fast paced, low wage food and beverage industry: the hotel industry, and we have the same problems with horribly incompetent and constantly changing managers. I've only worked this job (as a server) for a little over a year, but it's still more experience than most of our managers have had. a lot of them even studied hopsitality management in college for 4 years. we wonder what the hell they did in that time because we (the workers) could do a much better job running the place as a business.

I think that a major part of the problem is the power that the managers and the company have over every aspect of our working lives and the fact that they don't care what their incompetence, disrespect, and poorly thought decisions does to us. the only way they seem to know how to increase profits is by screwing the workers and paying us crap and not offering affordable health insurance.

So these are the reasons that workers in our sort of jobs organize and form a union, and that's exactly what we did. we won union recognition, we stand up together against management when they do something that's wrong and tell them to stop, and now we're fighting for our first union contract.

as a member of the organizing committee, it wasn't easy, it took lots of work of organizing and pushing people fast their fears. a year ago the company was making us sit through anti-union powerpoint presentations and trying to scare us. and it's still a lot of work as we fight for our first contract, but we're sick of working hard in stressful fast paced jobs while the company reaps all the benefits from our labor.

now if you work at starbucks or anywhere else, don't go talking union to everyone at work. if you want to organize, there's a right way and a smart way to do it. we had to organize quietly building a secret network of supporters and leaders for months before going public. for starbucks you would probably have to organize several or even dozens of stores in an area at the same time to have any sort of power against the company. it's a daunting task, but if you're up for it, go for it. you'll have my union's support.

[NYCUnionBarista]

Aint that the truth T.

Unfortunately because of the current Bush Administration and their Labor Board appointies, collective bargaining agreements are out of reach for the Starbucks Workers Union. Starbucks challenged our right to hold an election in a single store and wanted a 50 store bargaining unit. Organizing to win an election in so many stores would be a feat which near impossible for any union, even the SEIU or other biggies.

[T]

For sure. The hotel workers union (UNITE HERE) doesn't organize with NLRB elections anymore. We fight for "card check neutrality," where we pressure the companies to voluntarily agree to recognize the union when a majority of workers sign union cards. With hotels, a big part of that is having workers at already unionized hotels fighting for card check agreements at nonunion hotels (what happened in our case).

Can this be done at Starbucks? I think so. But only if you organize the majority of stores in a city at the same time (with all of them going public at once), and in conjunction with that organize the community. It would take a lot of work and at least a year of underground organizing.

[T]

For sure. The hotel workers union (UNITE HERE) doesn't organize with NLRB elections anymore. We fight for "card check neutrality," where we pressure the companies to voluntarily agree to recognize the union when a majority of workers sign union cards. With hotels, a big part of that is having workers at already unionized hotels fighting for card check agreements at nonunion hotels (what happened in our case).

Can this be done at Starbucks? I think so. But only if you organize the majority of stores in a city at the same time (with all of them going public at once), and in conjunction with that organize the community. It would take a lot of work and at least a year of underground organizing.

[Scorpio370]

I use to belong to a union at one of my older jobs... IT WAS CRAP. They took money, oh wait, dues is what they called it,encouraged us to strike for the higher wages, but when it came down to it, they wouldn't listen to what we wanted. They never came to the stores for the SCHEDULED visits, and when you tried to contact them about something that you needed help on, they took forever to get back with you.

Then I had another job where we were union, a lot of good that did. I missed my goal by 5% in my training period, pay attention there TRAINING PERIOD, and they gave me the option of quitting or being fired. The union, did nothing and said they couldn't do anything because it was part of the contract that if you did not meet the goal you could be fired AT ANY TIME!

Yeah, so go unions. If I get anyone who wants to go union in my store or anyone approaches me about going union, I'm just going to laugh a good hearty laugh and tell them what happened to me with my experiences in unions.

Scorpio

Well For those who feel they aren't treated right... I'm Sorry I'd love to show you how starbucks can be ran, Check out Jantzen Beach in portland Oregon. However submit a mission review, call the standards of business conduct hotline etc. starbucks has spent millions on protecting its employees and I was in a service employees union and the non union departments had better benefits, and the union didn't help me when I need them, SO the debate will rage on!

[T]

I think the lesson from the stories of the last 2 posts (and there are many more of these kind of "the union did nothing for me" stories out there) is that the union is only as good and effective as what you make it, just like with our government.

If you are faced with a corrupt or do-nothing government, the way you fix this is by getting involved in the political process and rallying your fellow citizens and maybe even kicking out the incumbents if you have to.

If you are faced with an inactive union staff that won't help you fight a lousy company, then you take things into your own hand and organize your coworkers and stand up to the bosses on the shopfloor. Become a committee person (shop steward) and learn how to organize.

One of the things about union staff helping you is that the real power of the union comes from the workers getting active. If nobody's doing anything and there's nobody participating in actions, then there's little the staff can do aside from bureaucratic, legal stuff that takes months to process, and this is not the way you want to win battles with the employer.

What the union staff should be doing is helping you learn how to organize, offering lots of training on how to develop relationships with coworkers and how to push people past their fears. Unfortunately, some unions are still stuck in this non-militant "servicing model" of not really organizing and just having understaffed staff handling grievances.

The Starbucks Workers Union from what I understand is a basically a rank n file effort, and the wobblies have less than a handful of paid staffers, maybe just one.

[TheRealRevolution]

Oh, T, if you only worked half as hard on the job, as you do raging against the machine, my stocks would be worth twice what they are.

Essentially, that is what unions are set up to do- protect the mediocre. Don't want to work hard? Don't want to be told you aren't getting a raise because you aren't performing to basic expectations? Join the Union!

[T]

You're right. I'll be the first to admit that unions do end up protecting the mediocre a little bit. But they're also a way for everyone else to protect themselves.

You can play with your stocks all day long, but in all likelihood you make most of your money from earned incomes, in which case unions are in your interest too.

[fa]

i think T that you seem to be pretty smart, and i agree with everything you've said.

the good part is that if you replace the word union with starbucks management, in your arguments for organizing - you'd be just as correct.

if you want to fix things, and are prepared to work as hard as you would on creating a union, you can take the many routes that starbucks has set up (mission review, code of conduct, PR) with probably less effort to make actual changes within the company.

i know that when one person tries to make change, it may not get heard - but when many people, using the many avenues try to make change - their voices get heard...