4 Starbucks Stores, Including 1 On LI, Seek To Unionize: ICYMI

Editor's note: This article was originally published on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022.

GREAT NECK, NY — Four New York City-area Starbucks stores, including one on Long Island, are planning to unionize.

On Thursday, employees from locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Great Neck filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board to organize with Workers United — an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. They are hoping to hold a unionization vote on March 3.

They join more than 50 other Starbucks locations across the country that have sought to unionize in the past few months. Two locations in Buffalo have already established unions, according to The New York Times.

In letters to Starbucks President and CEO Kevin Johnson, workers at the NYC-area company locations discussed the struggles to make ends meet during the COVID-19 pandemic, work conditions, and the years of deteriorating trust between the corporation and its workers, according to the Times.

"We realize, like our fellow partners across the nation, a union is the way to build back that trust and create a true partnership," a letter signed by employees at a store in Brooklyn said. "We want transparency and accountability, and unionizing gives us the power to make sure our presence is felt."

Joselyn Chuquillanqui, who works at Starbucks in Great Neck, called out the company for exploiting her and chastising other baristas whenever they raised concerns about work conditions during the pandemic.

"I have been with Starbucks for almost seven years. I have worked at three stores across two districts with nine different store managers. The problems at Starbucks are not about one particular store or manager but from the way this corporation as a whole is structured," Chuquillanqui said in a statement.

"They call us 'partners' and create an image that they care about us and that we have a voice and can speak about our concerns," she continued. "But every time I have raised a concern I have been ignored or vilified. I am tired of being exploited and I am tired of other baristas being chastised when they care about their own safety or about the safety of their families and community. These problems are not new, but they have gotten worse with COVID-19."

Chuquillanqui also said that Starbucks employees are not cogs in machines, but people who "deserve to get a say in our work."

A Starbucks spokesperson said the company had no comment on the latest petitions, other than to say that "our leaders have previously stated that we respect our partners' rights to organize and will bargain in good faith," according to The New York Post.

This comes as Starbucks fired seven employees who were trying to unionize a Memphis, Tennessee, location this week. The coffee chain claimed that the workers had violated company policies.

This isn't the first time company employees have been fired for trying to form a union. Back in 2019, Starbucks fired two workers seeking to unionize a store in Philadelphia.