In 2021, workers from multiple Starbucks locations in Buffalo, NY stood together to fight for changes in the workplace and filed a petition to unionize as Starbucks Workers United (SBWU). For years Starbucks workers have faced low wages, short staffing, and harassment in the workplace while navigating inconsistent and unpredictable work schedules.
The Elmwood store in Buffalo was the first location to unionize and, when the word got out, Starbucks workers around the country realized they were dealing with the same workplace issues. Hundreds of Starbucks stores began voting to unionize.
Since then, Starbucks has consistently failed to meet the union’s demands, calling SBWU’s proposed wage increases unsustainable. On Christmas Eve 2024, Starbucks baristas went on strike in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle “in response to the company backtracking on our promised path forward,” read an SBWU post on X.
This past Tuesday on March 11th, Starbucks workers at the Edgewater store in Chicago staged a sit-in to apply pressure on Starbucks to finalize a contract. Five other Starbucks locations joined in protest and, as a result, eleven Chicago workers and five Pittsburg workers were arrested.
On the Starbucks mission webpage, the company claims to “actively listen and connect with warmth and transparency” in order to create an atmosphere of belonging.
Yet here we are, almost three years after at least 11,000 baristas voted to unionize, and Starbucks continues to show that, in fact, they do not listen to their workers’ explicitly expressed needs for a better work environment.
Starbucks is a billion dollar company and the baristas do all the work to make that money. It shouldn’t take this long for Starbucks to agree to a fair contract and guarantee safer working conditions at a livable wage.
