Protesters Rally Outside Great Neck Starbucks After Union Leader Fired

GREAT NECK, NY — Protesters rallied Monday outside a Great Neck Starbucks in solidarity with a fired worker and labor organizer as tensions escalated between the coffee giant and the staffers who want to unionize.

The rally took place outside the Starbucks at 6 Great Neck Rd. and drew dozens of supporters holding signs such as "This Is A Class War" and chanting phrases including, "We are exhausted!" The show of force comes after the firing last month of longtime Starbucks worker Joselyn Chuquillanqui.

A former shift supervisor at the Great Neck store, Chuquillanqui, 28, said she was fired over tardiness complaints, according to Newsday. She insisted the complaints were an excuse for her termination.

Starbucks responded with the following statement, the outlet reported: "A partner's interest in a union does not exempt them from the standards we have always held."

Like the outpost on Great Neck Road, more than 50 Starbucks stores nationwide have sought to unionize in recent months. In February, four New York City-area Starbucks stores — including the one in Great Neck — filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board to organize with Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.

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 New York Times.

Chuquillanqui called out the company, saying it exploited her and chastised staffers who raised concerns over work conditions during the pandemic.

"I have been with Starbucks for almost seven years," Chuquillanqui said at the time. "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."

A Starbucks spokesperson said the company had no comment on the 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.

Speaking at Monday's protest, Chuquillanqui said she hopes "people will support us at these rallies," according to Newsday.

"I should be reinstated, and I should get my job back," she said, per the news outlet. "We all deserved to have rights."

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