Letter to Starbucks CEO from Starbucks Workers Organizing Stores (August 2024)

 

Dear Laxman Narasimhan,

We, the partners at 15 stores across the country, are joining our 10,500+ union partners at the 470+ union stores to stand up for our dignity, health, and safety as Starbucks workers. A fair contract is a necessity not just to change our company and its working conditions for the better, but also as a building block to give back to the communities in which we are built.

We are told as workers that we are essential partners in creating a welcoming and relaxing third space for our customers, while in the same breath that we have not earned the staffing we need to actually create that space. Our customers’ wait times have exploded while our staffing has shrunk; our income has diminished as our hours have been cut; and our health has declined as our workload has increased. We are drawn in with the promise of benefits Starbucks describes as industry leading, yet struggle against the company to get the minimum hours we need to actually qualify for those benefits.

We are told that our experience as partners is valued, yet as expectations continue to grow, we are starved of the resources we need to succeed. Promo after promo, we are left struggling: struggling to connect with our customers and our fellow partners, struggling to have three people do the work of six for no additional pay, struggling to hold our stores together. Discussing these problems with store managers and district managers does nothing to bring change to our stores, so we have decided to take matters into our own hands and join together in the union. Across the country, these experiences unite our stores, and together we are unionizing to demand better staffing, guaranteed hours, and proper compensation for the work we are doing.

We refuse to be pawns in a zero-sum game. If we are truly partners, we demand to join you at the bargaining table so that we, too, can have a say in the future of the company that could not run without our labor.

In solidarity,

The partners atUSC Village – Los Angeles, CA
Collins & Lamar – Arlington, TX
Hamden (2100 Dixwell Avenue) – Hamden, CT
Litchfield Turnpike – Woodbridge, CT
One Liberty Plaza – Manhattan, NYC
Hwy 70 & Hwy 20 – Marysville, CA
Shoppes at Belmont – Lancaster, PA
82nd & King – Portland, OR
Central & 53rd – Fridley, MN
30th & Arapahoe – Boulder, CO
St John-US 41 & 101st Ave – St John, IN
Summit & Main – Crown Point, IN
Murray Ave – Pittsburgh, PA
433 Cleveland – Clearwater, FL
300 E. Lincoln Hwy, Exton – Exton, PA