FILE- Richard Bensinger, left, who is advising unionization efforts, along with baristas Casey Moore, right, Brian Murray, second from left, and Jaz Brisack, second from right, discuss their efforts to unionize three Buffalo-area stores, inside the movements headquarters on Oct. 28, 2021 in Buffalo, N.Y. The National Labor Relations Board is scheduled to count ballots Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, from union elections held at three separate Starbucks stores in the Buffalo area. Around 111 Starbucks workers from the three stores were eligible to vote by mail starting last month.(AP Photo/Carolyn Thompson, File)
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Starbucks is the world’s largest coffeehouse chain and one of the most recognizable consumer brands in existence. In the US alone, Starbucks has nearly 9,000 corporate-owned stores, and not a single one of them is unionized … but that may be about to change. After leading an organizing campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic and facing tireless efforts by the company to delay, deflate, and defeat union elections with the National Labor Relations Board, workers at three Starbucks locations in Buffalo, New York, have submitted their ballots, which are being counted as we speak.
In this Working People mini-cast, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez talks with Brian Murray, one of the Buffalo Starbucks workers and organizers with SBWorkers United, and journalist Jordan Chariton, who recently traveled to Buffalo to speak with Starbucks workers and report on their fight for Status Coup.
Additional links/info below…
- SBWorkers United website, Twitter page, and Instagram
- GoFundMe: Starbucks Retaliates Against Whistleblower
- Jordan’s Twitter page
- Status Coup website, Twitter page, and YouTube channel
- Sean Collins, Strikewave, “It’s about having a democratic voice in Starbucks.” Interview with Brian Murray of SBWorkersUnited“
- Noam Scheiber, The New York Times, “As Starbucks Workers Seek a Union, Company Officials Converge on Stores“
- Ahiza García-Hodges, NBC News, “Former Starbucks CEO Uses Holocaust Analogy to Describe Coffee Company’s Mission“