Starbucks Fired Workers for Unionizing, But Workers Are Fighting Back
When many young people today think of unions, they think of construction workers, teachers, or nurses. Words like minimum wage or strike may come to mind. The word barista typically doesn’t. Yet, a union is simply a group of workers who come together and use their collective strength in the workplace. With a union, workers have the power to collectively bargain with their employer and negotiate a contract that sets working conditions, pay, benefits, and more. With a union, workers have the ability to build power and fight for their interests in the workplace.
It is no secret that union membership in the United States has been on the decline. While only 10.3% of wage and salary workers in the U.S. were in a union in 2021, almost 35% of wage and salary workers were in unions in 1954, at the peak of union membership. There are many reasons for the decline in organized labor, including automation, a shift away from manufacturing, and, of course, increased employer opposition to unions. Regardless of the cause, the effects were devastating: The boss had all the power. As union membership started to decline steadily in 1979, income inequality rose and wage growth for working-class Americans stagnated.
Fast forward to the COVID-19 pandemic. Food and restaurant workers were called “essential workers,” and expected to continue showing up for work in person, despite significant risks to their health. Since Starbucks stores sell a variety of food products, baristas were deemed essential, too.
In January 2021, we were both working at Starbucks part-time while also being full-time students. From Memphis to Pittsburgh, our struggles were similar. We faced issues with management and felt overworked and underpaid. The company took our COVID benefits away without consulting workers, stopped requiring customers to wear masks (and our ability to enforce mask-wearing), and acted like things were back to normal when clearly they were not.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/starbucks-workers-fired-union
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