Amherst, N.Y. (WBEN) - Starbucks workers at the Transit Commons location in Amherst are on strike Saturday to Monday protesting the corporate retaliation of their store recently unionizing.
According to the Starbucks workers since unionizing on July 11th with a vote of 11-1, they have continued to be treated unfairly. Workers have been subjected to getting their hours cut, drastic changes in scheduling, unfair treatment from newly-hired out-of-state managers and being spied upon to name a few problems.
Long-time baristas of the company, Jake Moore and Michael Sanabria said the final straw for initiation of this protest came Friday.
"I came in and there was a co-worker outside and when I went to talk to her she was crying, very upset. She got sent home for a very petty and stupid reason, she didn't apologize to a manager or something. Something very small along the lines," said Moore, a barista working for the company for almost five years.
"We're out here on strike, over retaliation for unionizing. We unionized two weeks ago and since then, there's been all sorts of hours cuts, threats from our CEO about withholding raises and benefits," said Sanabria. "In the fall, there was all sorts of spying where corporate executives and managers were sent in, literally to spy on us in like a shock and awe type campaign and we had a breaking point the other day. We are all fed up."
Sanabria also notes that their previous store manager, who refused to participate in spying on employees, was pushed out and replaced by an out-of-state manager.
"They pushed out our previous store manager, specifically, because he didn't want to participate in the shady things. He didn't want to do any spying. He didn't want to take records of who was protesting and who was anti-union and arbitrary things like dress code, to write people up and fire people over. He thought that that was unethical and they were very rude to him over that," said Sanabria.
Sanabria also notes that no managers are hiring even though baristas are quitting, which is causing locations to become understaffed, "We've also had erratic changes like to our scheduling. At one point before the campaign started, we were open till 10pm and now we are closing at 6pm. They also like there's no hiring that is going on by managers. So as people are getting fed up and quitting, they're not being replaced."
Starbucks have been in court with the National Labor Relations Board over the last two weeks, citing over 200 labor law violations in all 21 Buffalo-area stores, which includes firing union leaders and sending out-of-state executives to spy, monitor and intimidate employees.
"When long-standing partners of 8-10 years quickly exit the company due to being antagonized by multiple support managers, it's one step towards recognizing that there is something systematically wrong with the way that Starbucks as a corporation is conducting themselves towards their partners. We love being partners for one another in the store, and removing the trust and sincerity in our leadership has led us partners to become unsettled with their security in position." said Noelle Abdallah, barista at the Transit Commons store.
The ultimate goal of this strike is to get Starbucks to negotiate a deal with the unionized stores and to stop the harassment.
"Since we've unionized, there haven't been many changes yet. We do expect it to happen. But going forward, like what's next is trying to get them to meet us at the bargaining table to start negotiating for a contract over to treat us fairly and treat us respectfully," said Sanabria.
To date, the number of unionized Starbucks locations has exceeded over 170 locations, most of them predominantly in Western New York.
