The Starbucks on 24th Street unionized over a year ago, but workers say they are still fighting for equal treatment by the company amidst fears of retaliation.
Last month, the location did not participate in the Starbucks Worker’s United “Strike with Pride,” an event held in response to the company preventing stores from putting up pride decorations.
Barista Lillian Allen said the 24th Street storefront refrained from striking largely out of fear of company retaliation.
“People are scared of losing their jobs,” Allen said. “There’s always a risk in a strike that management will illegally retaliate. If they do, then we have legal recourse, but that’s a process that takes time … it’s a long road, and people who are working their way through college … don’t want to risk it.”
Since the storefront unionized, Allen said the company withheld certain benefits from the location, such as more inclusive apron sizes and an updated dress code. They said the location’s biggest challenge is the lack of tip options when a customer pays for an order with a credit card instead of the Starbucks app.
“In adherence to current U.S. labor law, Starbucks was able to implement changes and improvements to wages and benefits — including new technology required to support tipping on credit and debit card transactions — at all stores where organizing activity began after May 4, 2022,” a Starbucks spokesperson said in an email.
However, Allen said the 24th Street location, which officially voted to unionize on June 10, 2022, still cannot receive tips from credit cards.
“(It’s) very frustrating in the meantime when everyone else is getting this additional source of income that we’re not getting,” Allen said.
In recent years, Allen said the company did not clarify if benefits such as reimbursement for travel to access gender-affirming care would be available for unionized employees.
“For them to have no sort of clarification on whether or not this benefit would be accessible to partners at union stores was just cruel, honestly,” Allen said. “There’s just no clarity, and it’s adding uncertainty to people’s lives that are already so full of uncertainty and fear in this day and age.”
Although the unionized location faces these challenges, Allen said the organization has been necessary — even as a temporary job for the location’s many student employees. Ed Sills, director of communication for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, said unionization protects current and future student workers.
“For as long as Starbucks is in existence, there will always be workers there,” Ed Sills said. “The ones at the 24th Street location who have chosen to join together and work for better working conditions have taken a brave step, and not only have they taken the step for their own well-being, but they’re taking it for the well-being of all workers who (are) there now and who will be there in the future.”
Allen said the storefront’s unionization is just one example of a wider recognition of the value of labor.
“Everyone who’s working to have a say in their workplace, that frightens people who are used to being able to shuffle people around and dispose of them as necessary or desired,” Allen said. “We’ve realized that we have strength in numbers.”
