Customer loyalty - measured through the growing number of Starbucks rewards members - remains strong. Starbucks' revenue rose in the third quarter of this year, exceeding expectations. All the negative publicity surrounding the company's anti-union activity doesn't appear to have hurt its sales. Indeed, Schultz continues to be very good at the very thing that Starbucks is known for: selling coffee. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz speaks during the Starbucks annual meeting of shareholders in Seattle in 2017 amid happier times. Starbucks faces no fines, only 'make whole' remedies such as back pay for reinstated workers and compensation for medical, legal and moving costs associated with firings. Congress prohibits the NLRB from assessing monetary penalties for unfair labor practices. Penalties for violating federal labor law are weakīeyond issuing complaints, the NLRB has little power to change the company's behavior. Starbucks said it disagreed with the judge's ruling, maintaining that those fired had violated company policies. Federal labor officials investigating the dismissals have concluded that some employees were indeed wrongfully terminated, including seven in Memphis.Ī federal judge in western Tennessee ordered the company to reinstate the seven workers. Workers United says Starbucks has fired more than 100 union leaders. 'We just want to go to work like everybody else and do our jobs and not have to worry when the other shoe is going to drop.' We're terrified,' says Jasmine Leli, a barista and union leader in Buffalo, N.Y. Meanwhile, those still pushing for a union at Starbucks say they remain fearful that they could lose their jobs at any time. She serves on the Starbucks workers' national bargaining committee.Įven at unionized stores, fear of retaliation is prevalent Jasmine Leli, a barista at a Buffalo-area Starbucks, is worried about her job. 'They kind of get a little angry because they're like, 'Well, how come we're not getting these benefits?'' says Gailyn Berg, who works at a unionized Starbucks in Falls Church, Va. It's led new workers at unionized stores to question the point of a union. What should be good news for workers has muddied the union's messaging and its efforts to expand to more stores. The company has posted flyers about these new benefits in back rooms of stores, including unionized ones. Since then, Starbucks has unveiled even more benefits - including financial tools aimed at helping employees build savings and manage student loan debt - again, for nonunion stores only. The New Ground Zero For Unions: Coffee Houses Starbucks says employees getting new benefits, but not at stores that are unionizingĪlmost immediately, Workers United filed an unfair labor practice charge against Starbucks, accusing the company of misleading employees and violating labor law by threatening benefits amid a union campaign.īut those complaints and others have done nothing to deter Starbucks. The impressive numbers showcase how Starbucks baristas have turned a grassroots campaign into a national labor movement with lightning speed. In the past week, Starbucks locations in Washington, D.C., Albuquerque, N.M., and Westlake, Ohio, became the latest to join the national union Workers United. Even more remarkable is that 80% of them, or around 245 stores, have gone in favor of forming a union. So far, more than 300 Starbucks stores in close to three dozen states have had union elections - a stunning number, given not a single company-owned store had a union at this time last year. This month, workers from hundreds of unionized Starbucks stores are expected to sit down for collective bargaining for the first time, while others will vote in still more union elections to come. Starbucks workers are busy this fall, and not just with making pumpkin spice lattes. Marchers raise picket signs during a 'Fight Starbucks' Union Busting' rally held in Seattle in April.

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