PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A group of Philadelphia Starbucks employees and supporters braved the cold Sunday morning for day three of protests.
Unionized Starbucks workers across the country have been on strike since Friday pushing for a contract for better working conditions.
“We're just telling Starbucks that if they're refusing to protect their unionized workers and refusing to bargain in good faith, the very reasonable contract proposals that we're offering, then they can very easily lose a big part of their partner base,” said Amanda Kindler, who works at the Starbucks on 9th and South Streets.
Sarah Shields is a barista at the Starbucks on 20th and Market Streets and helped coordinate their strike. She wants better staffing, pay and benefits, she said.
She says Starbucks keeps pushing them more and more for higher sales and higher numbers of people each day.
“It gets harder and harder to cultivate that type of environment in the café when you're just pushing people out – in and out, in and out,” Shields said.
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She also alleges that unionized stores don’t have access to tips when customers provide them through the new debit and credit card system.
Starbucks says the tips will modify the terms and conditions of employment and they’re obligated by law to bring it to the bargaining table before it’s launched in union-represented stores.
Shields added that, while not every Starbucks store has decided to unionize, she feels those who have are being treated differently.
More than 264 of Starbucks’ 9,000 company-run U.S. stores have voted to unionize since late last year. In Philadelphia, seven locations have unionized.
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Workers United has filed more than 400 unfair labor practice charges, and Starbucks says they’ve filed 70 of their own with the National Labor Relations Board regarding the union’s ongoing misconduct at bargaining sessions.
Rachel Wall, a spokesperson for Starbucks, told KYW in a statement that they remain focused on working with Workers United and urge the union to uphold their promises to partners by moving the bargaining process forward.