Starbucks Workers United (SWU) is set to represent 400 plus stores and over 10,000 union partners. Although these numbers have not halted profits, Starbucks has grown 11.59% in revenue to $35.9 billion for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. Starbucks has not recognized the legitimacy of this union since it lacks communication to meet and begin collective bargaining efforts. With this stonewalling from the company continuing in 2024, employees face unfair wages, hours and firings. Today, it is essential that individuals, especially youth, learn about corporate tactics so individuals know that organizing is a right available to them.
Consumers in today’s market want their goods to arrive on time or require quality services without having to question the company’s treatment of workers. On the other hand, workers are often scammed in how their managers and corporations deny their hours, pay or healthcare. This disparity between what the consumer sees versus the treatment employees are subject to is why companies can continue their sly methods of ill-treatment towards their staff. These issues have been ongoing for years, illustrating the labor sector’s struggles with corporate interests blocking their agenda.
Starbucks is notorious for utilizing its marketing strategies to cover up its employees’ dissatisfaction regarding company benefits. In 2004, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union operated to turn working conditions into winnable demands, SWU stated that only 42% of the workers had access to healthcare, whereas today, healthcare is only accessible to those who work 20 hours a week. In January 2022, time reductions rolled out, reducing employees’ work time from 25 hours to anywhere between 17 to 5 hours a week. The change in corporate policies deepens employees’ resentment and trust in their employers, leading to protests and unionization efforts. However, individuals organizing Starbucks and other corporations see a potential threat and begin to spread their anti-union messaging.
Starbucks prides itself on principles of inclusivity and community, but these principles seem unapplied when treating Starbucks employees. The Starbucks website states “we call our employees partners because we are all partners in shared success.” Nevertheless, employees must deal with improper healthcare, wage deductions and unfair labor practices. These employees cannot be partners if they are not treated as equals.
Starbucks Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz has significantly halted unionizing efforts and “characterized unions as a menace to the company’s economics and culture.” Starbucks cannot sustain a healthy work environment if chief officers do not implement policies that create such a space. Additionally, California Representative Ro Khanna wrote a letter signed by 30 other representatives to Schultz calling attention to the unfair wage and benefit increases to those who are not unionized, illustrating how far this issue has permeated. It has reached a level of recognition demanding state intervention.
According to 2022’s Gallup Work and Education survey, 71% of individuals approve of labor unions which was at 48% in 2009. This indicates that the approval rate has increased in the last 12 years, yet the number of individuals actively participating in unions is low at 10% in 2023. These statistics demonstrate knowledge but inaction on the part of wage earning individuals. California has already taken action by establishing Assembly Bill 800 in chapter 271 which states that high school students in grades 11 to 12 will learn about labor in the month of May. This Workplace Readiness initiative by Califonia Assemblymembers could help bridge the gap between approval and participation in unionization.
To have a successful economy, employees must be reassured that they are partners in Starbucks’ success instead of pawns on a chessboard. Employees must be able to advocate for their fundamental rights without fearing retaliation from their managers. The path to better discourse between employees, managers, unions and corporate heads will be possible if franchise establishments like Starbucks learn to support workers rights. Teaching individuals about union efforts and labor rights in an academic setting could further the community’s understanding of what unions are meant for and why they are needed in the workplace. By teaching young minds the importance of unionization, individuals will be better equipped to know when they are being utilized by corporate agenda.
