VPM Reporting that Two Local Starbucks Joining Effort to Unionize

Starbucks across the nation are starting to push for the right to Unionize. The Starbucks in our area are no exception.

Details from VPM

The Starbucks on Midlothian Turnpike, across from Chesterfield Towne Center, and on Forest Hill Avenue filed paperwork on Wednesday to begin the process of forming a labor union. Employees like Katheryn Wiggers say they just want a seat at the bargaining table.

“I love our community, and our community loves coming to our Starbucks every day. And I don’t want to disrupt business or anything like that. I just want a fair and equal opportunity to speak for myself,” Wiggers said.

Wiggers has worked at Starbucks for the last five years. She says her colleagues have always had grievances with the corporation, but they didn’t realize they had a way to do something about it until other Starbucks employees began to unionize across the country.

“The five years that I’ve worked with Starbucks, I’ve seen a fair share of inequality and also just things that, if I had been able to advocate for myself, I would have changed,” Wiggers said. “And now going into this knowing that we can advocate for ourselves and have a voice is really game changing for us.”

The article goes into much more detail on the fight and I highly recommend you hit up that link to read the full story.

You can also check out Starbucks Workers United which is based in Buffalo where they recently were successful in unionizing.

We believe that the best way to truly inspire and nourish the human spirit is to organize for greater justice, greater equality, and a greater vision of what life can be for Starbucks workers across the Buffalo region and for workers in the coffee and restaurant industry.

As Starbucks Workers United, we are organizing a union to bring out the best in all of us. Our organizing committee includes Starbucks partners from across the Buffalo region. Many of us have invested years of our lives at Starbucks, while others have recently become partners. We all have one thing in common — we want the company to succeed and we want our work lives to be the best they can be.

We believe that there can be no true partnership without power-sharing and accountability. For this reason, and through discussing our shared experience working at Starbucks, we have come to the conclusion that organizing a union is the best way to truly contribute meaningfully to this partnership and both ensure that our voices are heard and ensure that when we are heard we have equal power to affect change and get things done.

We are “partners” becoming partners.

Starbucks is the leader in the coffee industry, and one of the most successful and companies in the world. We want to share in that success, and we want to have a voice in determining what that looks like for us. We think there is a disconnect between corporate and us. The company says that partners come first, but all too often puts large shareholders above all else.

We are not anti-Starbucks. We are Starbucks! We know what it takes to make this company run, and we know best what we need to be able to do our jobs to the fullest. We want to be able to be our best selves, and we cannot reach our full potential if we are understaffed, overextended, exhausted, and burned-out. We are organizing because we know that Starbucks partners have the ability to improve this company, transform this industry, and form a collaborative, creative, forward-thinking, justice seeking, independent organization that will allow us to advocate for ourselves.

According to CNBC article in July revenue hit $7.5 billion vs. $7.29 billion expected