Starbucks Employees Protest in the Face of Layoffs

Starbucks workers union picketed layoffs, what they describe as illegal firings and benefits-slashing.
Starbucks Employees Protest in the Face of Layoffs
2/17/2009
Updated:
2/17/2009
NEW YORK—Starbucks workers union picketed layoffs, what they describe as illegal firings and benefits-slashing in front of Union Square Starbucks store on Monday. The corporation is facing fire from its employees while it continues to lay off employees.

Starbucks stock prices have continued to fall and the global coffee giant is feeling the pinch of the economic downturn. The company has said that layoffs will not affect the lowest level of employees, their baristas, the drink makers at the espresso machine.

Opponents say that the company has illegally fired workers for organizing a union. There are legal proceedings in motion to restore employees to their former positions. Starbucks claims that the union is not legitimate, and the sentiment of those few employees does not mirror the way the vast majority of their employees feel about their jobs.

“In my store the layoffs have been targeted at workers who have been there the longest; usually six and seven years,” said Liberty Locke, one of the fledgling union’s organizers. “Employees were given no warning; they didn’t even let them finish their shifts and they were given no severance pay.” “Consider how much this company takes in,” said Locke, “They are not in the red and are still profitable.”

Unions have never had much luck getting started in Starbucks; in fact, there has never been a unionized Starbucks location. The Industrial Workers of the World IU 660 has attempted to establish the first union at a Manhattan Starbucks coffee shop with dubious results.

The corporation’s Web site states that Starbucks believes that the direct employment relationship which they currently have with their partners is the best way to help ensure a great work environment.

A statement issued by Starbucks corporate offices Monday states: “Starbucks is proud to have such an exceptionally engaged group of partners who share our excitement about building a different kind of company. It is unfortunate that a small group of people with an outside agenda aimed at promoting itself and its interests, rather than improving Starbucks partner experiences, continues to misrepresent itself as speaking on behalf of more than 170,000 partners worldwide when it does not.”

Another employee who wished to remain anonymous said she had been working for the company for seven years and was given two weeks notice when they laid her off. “It’s just a push in the right direction for me,” she said, “I spent the last year thinking that I should get back into college and now is a perfect chance.”