Lynbrook Unionized Starbucks Workers Picket In Solidarity

LYNBROOK, NY — While workers at the Lynbrook Starbucks joined the growing effort to unionize last month, several baristas were back on the picket line.

As part of a one-day national strike, employees are demanding better treatment from bosses.

"Our manager has very clearly been playing favorites with the workers she thinks or knows are anti-union while unfairly punishing union workers," Liv Ryan, a union organizer at the Lynbrook store, told Patch.

Ryan had feared losing her job for taking the large presence with the union. That didn't happen. Perhaps she was on safer ground because "it would be illegal for my manager to fire me, but I don’t think she is aware enough of the gravity of the situation," Ryan said.

Although a dismissal under union protection would make it "significantly easier to get my job back," she said.

A handful of Long Island Starbucks voted in the past year to unionize, including in Westbury and Wantagh.

One of the issues faced at the shops is being short-staffed, a concern that weighs on Lynbrook's Ryan.

"We want some acknowledgment and a solution," she said.

Since the Lynbrook shop voted 14-8 in favor of joining the union, Ryan said any improvements at the location are barely noticeable.

"One of the anti-union people was bullying baristas and for a few weeks she stopped because we spoke directly to our district manager, but in the last 2 weeks she’s reverted back to a bully," Ryan said.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz abruptly stepped down this week, two weeks ahead of schedule, and just before a Sen. Bernie Sanders-led hearing on the company's union busting.