Staff report
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — June 26, 2023
Employees at the Bloomington Eastside Starbucks have announced their decision to unionize with Starbucks Workers United, citing concerns over working conditions and support for the LGBT community. The announcement was made in a letter posted on Twitter and sent to Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan on Monday.
The decision to form a union comes as workers express frustration with the business practices of Starbucks and fast food employers nationwide. The employees of the Bloomington Eastside store allege that they have faced challenges such as reduced hours and severe understaffing while being expected to meet demanding performance targets. They also raised concerns about unpredictable scheduling and the potential impact on their financial stability and access to healthcare.
“With unpredictable scheduling, we wonder if we’ll be able to pay next month’s rent or if we even qualify for necessary healthcare while watching the new CEO get multi-million dollar sign-on bonuses paid for with the profit we make for this company every day,” the workers said in the letter.
In addition, the workers expressed disappointment over the removal of their store’s pride flag, which they view as an affront to the LGBT community. They criticized Starbucks for yielding to those who threaten homophobic and transphobic violence, potentially endangering their LGBT workers.
“As the walls of homophobic and transphobic fascism close in around us in a state like Indiana, you offer no support to those of us who desperately need it – even taking down our pride flag and restricting our freedom to decorate our store for pride month,” the letter stated.
“We want to reclaim the power we deserve over our workplace, reclaim the third-place, and protect the culture of authenticity and inclusion that queer workers have built at Starbucks,” the letter also stated. The employees demanded fair pay, consistent hours, better protections against discrimination, and the freedom to openly express their queer identities at work.
“We’re demanding recognition of our right to organize, as protected under federal law and as it’s enforced by our intrinsic power as workers,” said the letter.
It remains to be seen how Indiana’s “right to work” law, which prohibits mandatory union membership, will affect the employees’ ability to collectively bargain. Starbucks Workers United, the union with which the Bloomington Eastside employees have affiliated, will likely face challenges under this law.
If the workers go on strike, Starbucks can likely fire and replace them with no repercussions, because Indiana is an “at will” state, which means an employer can fire a worker for any reason at any time.
More on right-to-work states:
Starbucks also has a reputation for “union-busting” according to United States Senator Bernie Sanders, who confronted Starbucks founder and former CEO Howard Schultz back in March:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/12/starbucks-union-busting-nlrb-contract
In the letter’s closing sentences, the undersigned partners of Store #8961 formally requested Starbucks to recognize their union, CMRJB Workers United (SEIU), as the exclusive collective bargaining agent for all permanent hourly full-time and part-time employees, including Baristas and Shift Supervisors, excluding Store Managers, Assistant Store Managers, and supervisors as defined by the National Labor Relations Act.
The move by the Bloomington Eastside employees reflects a growing trend of workers across various industries organizing and advocating for their rights and better working conditions since the COVID pandemic.
Here is the complete text of the letter:
“Dear Laxman,
We, the workers of the Bloomington Eastside Starbucks, have found it necessary to come together as the community we are and form our union. We are united in the common struggle caused by the business practices of Starbucks and fast food employers across the country. You’ve made our jobs harder as one of the highest volume stores in the state of Indiana, cutting hours and causing severe understaffing, and then asking us to meet the impossible expectations of keeping drive-through times down and getting more orders out the window to earn those same hours back. With unpredictable scheduling, we wonder if we’ll be able to pay next month’s rent or if we even qualify for necessary healthcare while watching the new CEO get multi-million dollar sign-on bonuses paid for with the profit we make for this company every day.
To add insult to injury, our store’s pride flag was taken down at a time when being out and proud is needed more than ever. By conceding to those who threaten homophobic and transphobic violence, you are inviting those people not only into our store, but society at large, and putting our majority-LGBT workforce in even more danger, while simultaneously profiting off of those same overworked LGBT workers that are perpetually dancing on the knife’s edge of poverty. As the walls of homophobic and transphobic fascism close in around us in a state like Indiana, you offer no support to those of us who desperately need it – even taking down our pride flag and restricting our freedom to decorate our store for pride month.
We want to reclaim the power we deserve over our workplace, reclaim the third-place, and protect the culture of authenticity and inclusion that queer workers have built at Starbucks. We’re demanding fair pay and consistent hours; better protections for the queer workers among us when they face discrimination from customers and corporate; and the freedom to be proudly and loudly queer in the workplace at a time when it matters most. We’re demanding recognition of our right to organize, as protected under federal law and as it’s enforced by our intrinsic power as workers.
We, the undersigned partners of Store #8961, respectfully and formally demand that Starbucks recognize our union, CMRJB Workers United (SEIU), as the sole and exclusive collective bargaining agent for all permanent hourly full-time and part-time employees, including Baristas and Shift Supervisors, and excluding Store Managers, Assistant Store Managers, and supervisors as defined by the NLRA.
In solidarity forever with our fellow Starbucks workers, and all workers everywhere,
Signed,
Lucas Bishop Charlie Graham Ashara Klinghagen Abigail Mullikin Nick Williams
Em Driscoll-Norris Jordi Haviland Kaitlyn McFarlane Stefanie Sharp
Erica Ellert Mara Hiemenz Lydia Minton
Nikolas White”
Starbucks responded to Fox59 in regards to the union, and accused the workers of spreading “false information”:
