The line outside an Evanston Starbucks on Wednesday wasn’t people waiting to get coffee. Instead it was baristas who normally work at the store walking a picket line taking part in a nationwide strike accusing the company of unfair labor practices.
“We have to keep these corporate people on their toes and remind them of who we are and what power we have,” said Ashley Graham, who has worked as a barista at the Starbucks store in the 500 block of Main Street in Evanston for 18 months.
“They have been firing workers for unionizing, cutting hours, closing stores,” she said as passing motorists beeped their horns in support “All of that is catching up to them, and we’re one of the stores that wanted to join the movement against what they’re doing.”
About a dozen workers and supporters, yelling slogans and carrying homemade signs gathered outside the Main Street store at 5 a.m. on March 22, joining workers from about 100 other Starbucks stores across the country taking part in the one day strike, said Connor Brennan, a union organizing committee member and barista at the Main Street store. He said they planned to picket the café until it closed that evening.
He said that in January, the Evanston Main Street store joined about 300 other Starbucks stores that have unionized, a small portion of the total 9,000 stores in the U.S. the company operates. But the Seattle-based coffee behemoth has refused to negotiate a contract with its unionized workers, said Brennan.
“We won our union, but now we’re trying to win a contract with Starbucks,” he said. “None of the stores that have unionized have won contracts yet.”
“We need to win a contract with the company which would give us higher wages, more consistent staffing, more consistent schedules, benefits for all workers regardless of how many hours they work, a guaranteed number of work hours each week and better safety protections,” he added. “There’s a lot more to it but those are some of the main things.”
In a March 22 statement Starbucks said that “rather than publicizing rallies and protests, we encourage, Workers United, to live up to their obligations of responding to our proposed sessions and meeting us in person to move the good faith bargaining process forward. Nearly every store remains open for our customers at this time.”
The statement also said that only about 50 unionized stores across the country had protests, including the “Starbucks Support Center” in Seattle.
But Brennan said the company has not been truthful with its unionized workers.
“These stores are on strike in order to build pressure to win a contract,” he said. “Today is also a one day “Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike which means we’re protesting an unfair labor practice. They’ve been dramatically cutting hours at all the ‘union stores’ in retaliation for unionizing. They’ve also illegally fired over two hundred workers across the country for unionizing.”
Graham said she has to work as a part time actress because she cannot support herself on her Starbucks salary alone.
“A big part of why we’re called ‘partners’ at Starbucks is because we’re supposed to have a seat at the table with the shareholders, with corporate,” she said. “My questions to them is: If we are truly partners why are we not being paid more? Why are we not being staffed more? Why are we not more regularly scheduled? Why are we just not being listened to? They’re not coming to the bargaining table to talk at all.”
She also said that for the most part customers are respecting the picket line.
“Some people have been crossing unfortunately, but most people, especially regulars who know our faces, have been turning away,” she said.
Brian L. Cox is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
