Starbucks workers at 874 Commonwealth Ave. in Boston and several other stores are planning a rally at the Boston office of the National Labor Relations Board on Aug. 1 after being excluded from receiving a series of new benefits from the corporation, according to a tweet.
On Aug. 1 – the same day of the rally – Starbucks workers across the country will raise the standard minimum wage for workers to $15 to $23 an hour with a national average of $17. Benefits also include expanded training, improved sick leave and credit card tipping, according to NPR.
However, Starbucks stores that are organizing to form a union will be exempt from these benefits. For stores represented by a union, federal law requires good faith collective bargaining over all wages, benefits or working conditions for their employees, a Starbucks spokesperson told MassLive.
“Even if we were to offer certain benefits at the bargaining table a union could decide to change it to something else, so we can’t predict the outcome of negotiations and each store’s negotiations are going to look different. What we can say for sure, is that Starbucks will always bargain in good faith,” a spokesperson from Starbucks said.
Starbucks workers have been advocating for these benefits since they started unionizing, Kylah Clay, a Starbucks barista and organizer told MassLive. However, Clay claims when workers tried to advocate for these benefits in the past the company didn’t “coordinate” with them.
“They’re taking this feedback that they’ve taken from us during captive audience sessions and they’re rolling out these benefits for non-union, non-organizing partners as a way to really just punish us,” Clay said.
Some of the benefits are as simple as communicating with other stores and having an app to track broken material. While other benefits are programs that have been reintroduced after being discontinued like the Coffee Master black apron program.
Workers United, an American labor union, sent Starbucks a letter waiving any objections toward unionized stores receiving the new benefits, however, Starbucks has still refused to give the unionized stores their benefits before collective bargaining.
Employees at the 874 Commonwealth Ave. franchise have alleged that Starbucks has refused to bargain or bargained in bad faith, according to a file sent on July 25 to the National Labor Relations Board. Currently, the Boston region of the NLRB is investigating the allegations of unfair labor practices. If the NLRB’s Regional Director “finds merit” in these Starbucks workers’ allegations, then the Board will move forward with a complaint.
One of the main issues lies with Starbucks’s availability requirement for unionized stores, Kylah Clay, an organizer with the Boston Starbucks Workers United told MassLive. Clay, who coordinates with different Starbucks stores across the nation, claims the company is unilaterally changing rules and policies at unionized stores without good faith bargaining.
Specifically, Clay says Starbucks implemented a rule where workers need to have an availability of 15 to 30 hours a week. If workers cannot meet this demand, then they risk being fired. The company also implemented new store hour changes as well.
“Ultimately what this is trying to do is chill out efforts and it’s trying to persuade people to not vote ‘yes’ on the union,” Clay said. “They’re just picking and choosing when they want to bargain in good faith and they are definitely omitting the fact that we waived the ability to bargain with us when those benefits rolled out.”
On July 20, the Starbucks workers at the Commonwealth Ave. store went on strike alleging that their store manager, Tomi Chorlian, engaged in “unfair labor practices.” In a letter, the workers claim that Chorlian has made “illegal threats of discipline or termination of employees” who don’t comply with a new availability policy.
The letter states that this is a direct violation of Starbucks’ commitment to bargain in good faith first, MassLive reported.
Chorlian has allegedly made cuts to employees’ hours, understaffed the store, hired an influx of workers and made changes to work schedules without notifying employees first.
Since their strike, the workers have gained strong support from local leaders like Ed Flynn, the Boston City Council President, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
“We are calling on Starbucks to step up and be a good neighbor and a good partner for the city of Boston, and respect the unionizing that is happening here,” Wu told Boston Today.
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