Following the unionization of workers at a Buffalo Starbucks in New York, a trio of high schoolers is leading the effort to unionize a Mill Valley store.
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Ella Clark, a 17-year-old junior at Tamalpais High School said she likes her job as a Starbucks barista but was inspired by workers at the Buffalo location and other stores that have followed in attempting to organize.
"I was watching the union-busting that was going on and as workers, we have a right to organize and I was frustrated that Starbucks wasn't respecting that right," Clark told KCBS Radio.
She said she is happy with her working conditions but sees the benefits of workers banding together. She said while some stores have faced aggressive anti-union actions by management, she simply received a letter from regional managers.
"Saying they are available to talk to us if we have any questions and here is why we should vote no," she explained.
For many of these stores, it may be a challenge. Michael LeRoy is a professor of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign he said voting to unionize and reaching a deal are two very different things.
"The playbook for employers is to fight a union election and if you lose the election to contest the results and if you lose that to drag out the whole process," he said.
Starbucks said it's listening to employees but believes its relationship with workers is better without a union.
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