Starbucks Workers Union Picket Midtown Shop In National Day Of Action

MIDTOWN, NY — At Starbucks stores across the country on Monday, workers, union members and elected officials gathered to show support for the growing Starbucks workers unionization campaign in a national day of action.

At one of the 200 New York City stores where workers and supporters gathered, on Fifth Avenue and West 47th Street, a crowd stood for three hours in the early morning rain to hand flyers to customers seeking their morning coffee.

It's part show of support, part customer education, workers told Patch, who they hope will join in their struggle.

Since 2021 when a Buffalo, NY, Starbucks became the first to form and vote for a union, workers and government officials, including the National Labor Review Board, have accusing the global coffee giant of denying union supporters health insurance, holding mandatory anti-union meetings, terminating union leaders and even closing entire stores to stymie the union advance.

One former worker told Patch outside of the Midtown Starbucks that while it looks like coffee in your cup, customers are really buying unions busting.

"The goal is to hand out flyers and to help the customers learn more about where their money is going," said Riley Fell, 19, of the action.

Fell is a barista who used to work at a Starbucks in the Financial District, and actually helped to successfully unionize a store in Baltimore a year ago.

"Their money is going to a company that is engaging with union busting, unfair scheduling practices and inappropriate pay," Fell said, highlighting some of the main complaints made by workers.

And Fell wasn't alone.

Other issues, workers said, included how the company handles sexual and racial harassment in stores, at-will employment, and favoritism — all issues on the Starbucks Workers United list of proposals.

In addition to supportive striking Writers Guild of America workers and union members from 32BJ, State Assembly Member Alex Bores, who represents parts of Midtown and the Upper East Side, was there to show his support.

"Starbucks has engaged in the most egregious anti-union campaign we've seen," he said. "Starbucks is violating labor law in preventing workers from joining a union."

Part of what makes Starbucks' efforts to strenuously fight union efforts — over 300 of 9,000 stores in the country have won union votes — so disturbing is the years of cultivating a brand as a progressive company, Bores said, and thinks they should simply allow their own workers to decide if they want a union or not.

"Starbucks was always more than a cup of coffee," the elected official said, "they were also selling values, a culture. We're here to remind customers that they have not lived up to their values."

A bill in Albany would prohibit companies from making political or religious meetings mandatory — including those captive audience anti-union meetings that Starbucks is accused of regularly holding.

"People should be aware that when they make a purchase, they are making a choice," Bores said.

Alberto Oliart, 28, lives in Harlem but works at a Starbucks in Brooklyn's Industry City. He just started there in February after spending years in restaurants, and he knew right away that he wanted to help organize the union — partially helped that a union organizer plays trombone in his brass band.

He said that the fight at Starbucks isn't just about green-aproned baristas.

"We're fighting to raise the standard of living for not only Starbucks workers but workers in general," Oliart said, "we're just one piece of the puzzle."

Oliart said his store — mostly staffed with working-class neighbors from the prominently hispanic neighborhood — was largely supportive because "people are very tired of being exploited — especially older people — whether it's at Starbucks or at other low-wage jobs."

"They're tired of working so much for so little," he said.

While Oliart said he was a devoted Socialist who wants to see the dismantlement of the capitalist system, he's boiled down his message to a simple equation free of political catchphrases.

"The less they pay us and the less they pay the coffee farmers — the more they get paid."

Starbucks, a company with over 35,000 stores globally and posted over $32 billion in revenue for 2022, has yet to sign a contract with any Starbucks Workers United organized location.