You walk into the brightly-lit, modernist superstore. Immediately you are faced with a sensory onslaught: fluorescent lights shining off the glossy floor and white-backed interior, some sort of ‘Top 40 Pop’ radio station playing at a slightly too high volume over the PA system, cheap perfume sprayed in air freshener quantities. You are greeted by a part-time customer service rep, who is stocking shelves in between attempts to study the assigned reading from their $200 college textbook, with the automatic, “Hello, welcome to Superstore, is there anything I can help you with?” There is, you don’t know where anything is as you are still trying to recover from the sensory overload given to you by the overly sterilized corporate design, yet you aren’t sure if it’s worth pulling away the one worker on the clock from their current tasks. “No, thank you though” you respond, and you work to adjust your eyes and clear your sinuses.
As you venture further into the racks lined with polymer clothing made in sweatshops across the globe, you look for some shirts, as most of the shirts you have now are falling apart and unable to be fixed any longer without looking homeless. All these shirts are similar to the shirts you have before they fell apart after a couple wash cycles. You are only able to find some poorly-fitting, poorly-made cotton shirts that may be slightly better. You settle for a couple polymer shirts and a couple cotton shirts. None fit quite right in one way or another.
There was once a time, not even all that long ago for members of the middle class, where a person would go to a retail clothing store, and when shopping, the workers would be not only knowledgeable. Often they would be a tailor/seamstress that could make adjustments to help improve the fit, or otherwise make recommendations. Often in both poorer and middle class neighborhoods, there would be members of the community that were respected for their craft, recognized by their signatures, and known by name. In these cases, it wouldn’t be surprising for the “storefront” to be a house you would stop by. In my rural hometown, it still isn’t too uncommon to see neighbors going to each other for their skills rather than taking the trip into town to a multibillion dollar superstore. Whenever something with an engine breaks down, the neighbors bring it to my Grandpa’s to fix. Even within department stores during the first half of the 20th century like Macy’s, we still saw a level of customer service that would be considered “bespoke” by today’s standards, while “big box” stores beginning in the 60’s, such as Walmart, seem to have been the final nail in the coffin. The strategy of being a one-stop shop, focused on self-service and efficiency, willing to sell some items at a loss to draw in customers, forced many smaller businesses into bankruptcy.
This is not just a condemnation of fast fashion, and the direction that retail shopping has taken, as there are other industries that have seen similar trends. For example, we still have farmers markets, but rarely outside of that are you able to talk to the person who cultivated the food you are looking to purchase, nor can you find many who can give you information (of any substance) about the food they are selling in the mega-store they’re employed at. I don’t want anyone to think I’m blaming the workers, as they are likely hundreds to thousands of miles from where the food originates, where it is usually produced from large scale or factory farming focusing on yield over quality. Service industry jobs like this also tend to be multiple levels removed from any point of decision making, making them incapable of doing anything to truly help customers if there’s a problem or complaint.
What this results in is an overworked, undertrained, overall less helpful worker whose primary purpose in the business is to produce as much profit as possible before being replaced for one of any number of reasons. It is a similar level of alienation from labor experienced by the assembly line workers beginning a little over half a century prior. One large difference between the factory workers and service workers is that many factory workers could be considered “skilled labor” by business unions, whereas service workers are considered to be “unskilled”, and therefore not worth trying to organize for larger business unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
Jobs that are seen as “less than”, as stepping stones, placeholders before you get “a real job”, are also quite frequently jobs that could benefit from having experience and knowledge. The customer service representative at Home Depot is undoubtedly a position many would look down upon, yet if you have a question about something for a project, you want that person to know what they’re talking about. How can that worker both have the knowledge and experience you’re asking from them, while also expecting them to get out of that job the moment something better comes along? Why is that? Why do many tend to look at someone working at hourly, customer facing jobs as only being starter jobs? What ultimately determines the hierarchy of jobs?
In the book Bullshit Jobs by anthropologist David Graeber, we get the beginning of our answer. In the book, Graeber talks about the correlation between how important a job is to society, or how much it contributes to society, and the level of pay that job gets, as well as what level that job sits on in our hierarchy. We often see that jobs that are seen as important to society tend to be paid less than those who are less important, or contribute less, with some exceptions. EMTs, firefighters, soldiers, and teachers all have an average yearly salary of between $30–60k within the United States. Yet a stock broker can make a salary starting at $200k, and middle to upper management positions tend to be paid decently over the median wage, but contribute the least to society while also being seen as the goal of many people’s careers. In a similar manner, we often see that many public facing jobs in the modern day are considered the lesser job, while the managerial, or executive positions — that sit in offices and play golf on business trips — are seen as the desirable, or real jobs. Yet there are companies where we see executive and managerial positions sitting vacant for extended periods of time without any consequences. Uber went without a CEO from June to August 2017, from March 2015 to August 2018 without a CFO, and to this day does not have a COO, CMO, or a President, with no noticeable consequences. If these positions really justified the 6 figure salaries and 7 figure stock option bonuses we see on offer, then why are they able to sit vacant for so long? If a few key frontline jobs in some companies could shut the business down by not doing their job, why do the executives get paid an average of $272 for every $1 their average employee is paid? Why are so many willing to defend the salary of the executive while seeing the employee as greedy if they want any more than they currently have?
When Covid first swept through, sending many into lockdowns, we saw a large percent of working people lose jobs or get furloughed while still having to feed themselves, make rent, and just survive. During this time we saw an increased interest in the website ‘OnlyFans’. During the peak of this, when many women, and also some men, were setting up accounts to profit off the newly decentralized nature of online sex work, we also saw a reaction against the website and these users. Often the phrase “Internet prostitute” would be used to describe these creators, mostly directed at female creators by men across social media. While there is of course misogyny heavily involved, there is also an odd conflict happening here. In most cases of sex work, we see that the service is desired, but the people providing the service are belittled. This is certainly something that all sex workers have to deal with, but it is also a more blatant display of the dissonant behavior of utilizing a service while believing that those providing the service are less than you for doing so. The double whammy of misogyny and borderline slave driver mentality towards service workers in general only seems to make sex work an especially vitriolic workspace. One part of it I believe, is that many men see sex work as being “easy money” and in some cases maybe not even work at all. Women trying to earn money in the sex industry are seen as lazy to these men, an equivalent to the general “nobody wants to work anymore” statements we see from business owners.
In an inverse to what we saw with Covid and Onlyfans, during the lockdown and afterwards there were many customer service facing positions that employers are unable to fill, with people blaming the workforce for being “lazy” or “unwilling to work”. In these same jobs, a service is not only wanted, but in some cases demanded, yet all the while the workers providing that service are expected to not be experts in their craft, to play a “jack of all trades”, and be looked down upon for not fulfilling the customer’s expectations. In the search for productivity through the industrial revolution, we transformed the human at work into a tool for labor, a piece of the machine that once broken can simply be “fixed” or replaced. If a job is not done exactly right, it is because the worker is faulty, and it’s either the result of a lack of training or the worker not wanting to properly do the job. As the service sector becomes the dominant form of labor in wealthy nations, we see this assembly line mentality applied to jobs that would be better served with a chance to specialize. “If only that fast food worker had more pride in his work, he would have remembered to take the onions off my burger! If he has too much pride in his work, then I must remind him he is a lowly burger flipper who needs to grow up and get a ‘real job’, because the labor put into a job at McDonald’s is not really labor.” There is an assumption that the back of the McDonald’s is supposed to be able to function like a rolling conveyor belt; one worker lays out the buns, another puts on the patty, another the lettuce, etc. Instead, due to the intentional and chronic understaffing problem in the service industry, there often is one worker cooking the patties, putting the sandwich together, and wrapping it up while customers complain about the time it is taking. I would hardly call that “unskilled” work.
Mean Family Income over Median Family Income. Reflects how much faster top earners’ incomes are rising.
“Skilled workers,” on the other hand, have skills or education that can be shown on paper which makes them more expensive to employ through higher pay and better benefits packages. That level of education and training is also not easy to replace quickly. As a result, skilled labor also tend to carry a higher expectation of respect, which can sometimes label them as “hard to work with” if considered too expecting by employers. All of this means that experts are not ideal candidates for positions that demand a lot, while giving little in return. In other words, jobs where the company cares less about retaining employees, and more about retaining ever higher profits.
High turnover jobs are not always that way by coincidence; they can be structured in a way to pull as much work out of you as possible for as long as you’re willing to take it. In some cases this is due to executive ignorance to the toll that high turnover takes, in aTime article from June 2023, Zeynep Ton states:
Many executives I’ve met didn’t think costs of turnover were high enough to justify higher pay — but they had never even quantified the full costs of turnover to begin with.
Zeynep Ton, author and professor
Ton goes on to say, once the death spiral of high turnover starts, the job then becomes designed around that high turnover:
Inevitably, these companies don’t trust their frontliners to do a good job and design the jobs for interchangeable pairs of hands rather than humans with brains, wasting so much talent and potential along the way.
Zeynep Ton
Some companies have done the unthinkable to try to turn this trend around. One example given in the Time article is Sam’s Club; by increasing pay and reworking scheduling, Ton tells us that Sam’s Club reduced turnover by 25% in 2 years, while productivity increased 16%, customer loyalty by 7%, and sales grew by 15%. This is at the same time as the standard Walmart stores began cutting wages for new employees. Under the current U.S. health insurance system, companies are required to subsidize a portion of the premiums for employee healthcare, whereas a part-time employee does not qualify for company healthcare, and instead must use the Health Insurance Marketplace and hopefully qualify for government subsidies for the portion that employers would normally cover. Some companies take advantage of this and will only schedule workers for “full time hours” sporadically to avoid having to cover benefits.
In the search for infinite growth, companies have been found to do everything within their means to show in each quarterly report that their margins have grown by at least the expected rate. This could mean stock buybacks to inflate per share valuations for current shareholders, creative accounting to book losses on paper, wage theft, offsetting the fiscal calendar of subsidiaries, or paying the lowest pay rate possible while not matching inflation during raises so the overall cost of labor per worker reduces over time causing overall wages to remain stagnant. As a result there becomes a conflict where workers are trying to survive in an understaffed environment to collect a paycheck not as large as it should be, all the while being expected to provide a level of service that you would get from a well staffed, well trained work environment. These intangibles are not able to be valued in dollars and put onto the books, which makes it harder for top level executives to realize the disaster occurring on the frontlines of their businesses. According to studies working to calculate the costs of losing these intangibles, they very much directly affect company profits. For manufacturing, according to a 2022 study:
Despite the manufacturer’s extensive quality control efforts, including stringent testing, each percentage point increase in the weekly rate of workers quitting from an assembly line (its weekly worker turnover) is found to increase field failures by 0.74%–0.79%.
The simplest solution to this would be instituting workplace democracy. When workers get to express themselves — giving input to the workplace they spend 40 (or often more) out of their 112 waking hours every week — and feel respected, they stay and provide better service. In the cases of worker co-ops, workers will often be willing to take a pay cut in exchange for job security during economic downturns, due to the extent of the positives during regular business. Co-ops are also structured in a way that gives the Frontline employee the ability to have a voice in company decisions, rather than being given orders from a faceless corporate executive. However, since too often capitalists love the idea of being feudal lords reigning with absolute authority over their hourly serfs, this is not likely to be widely implemented voluntarily, at least not without the workers organizing to take control. Still, while we continue in our struggle, we cannot forget one of the biggest fears that wakes the capitalist up at night in a cold sweat, is not optimizing profits. In some cases, it may even be considered illegal for them not to do so.
There is debate among legal academics over whether there is a legal mandate behind the “shareholder primacy model” requiring executives to maximize shareholder value, though it is still an openly used corporate governance model publicly implemented by Blue Chip companies such as GE, and Boeing more recently. To show how well this corporate governance model works for businesses, GE decided to ultimately break apart into 3 separate companies after losing billions. Boeing is being investigated for issues regarding poor quality control in their products as we have seen unfold over the last few months. Legally, the precedent in judicial rulings, in a case before the Michigan Supreme Court, Dodge v Ford Motor Co. 1919, says that corporations are designed with the primary purpose of increasing value returned to the shareholders.
The Dodge brothers, as the name suggests, had started up their own car company while owning 10% of Ford. They were hoping for a special dividend above the 5% already issued monthly to invest in their own company. Ford on the other hand had been lowering the price of the model T, and was planning to reinvest in the company, which meant he wasn’t going to issue special dividends to Ford shareholders. Not happy with this, the Dodge brothers sued the Ford Motor Company, demanding that it issue the special dividend to shareholders. In the ruling, Justice Ostrander points to Henry Ford’s plan regarding the construction of the new factory, with the reduced price for consumers as being the moment Ford shot himself into the foot, since Ford admitted he believed he could easily continue paying his workers less and charge more for his cars if he wanted:
In short, the plan does not call for and is not intended to produce immediately a more profitable business but a less profitable one; not only less profitable than formerly but less profitable than it is admitted it might be made. The apparent immediate effect will be to diminish the value of shares and the returns to shareholders.
Justice Russell C. Ostrander, in Dodge v Ford Motor Co., Michigan Supreme Court, 1919
We see many, more modern cases in which Dodge v Ford Motor Co. is cited where the courts rule in favor of the businesses. This primarily has to do with the inability to know what the results would be if another decision were made, contrasting to this case where we have many very defined numbers laid out and can do clear and quick math to see the difference. Ford’s lawyers tried to counter this with the idea that:
As the expenditures complained of are being made in an expansion of the business which the company is organized to carry on, and for purposes within the powers of the corporation as hereinbefore shown, the question is as to whether such expenditures are rendered illegal because influenced to some extent by humanitarian motives and purposes on the part of the members of the board of directors.
Dodge v Ford Motor Co., Michigan Supreme Court, 1919
Ostrander ultimately stated that since Ford clearly knew if his plan was implemented that the company would make less money than it otherwise could that he broke his fiduciary responsibility to maximize short term gains:
There should be no confusion (of which there is evidence) of the duties which Mr. Ford conceives that he and the stockholders owe to the general public and the duties which in law he and his co-directors owe to protesting, minority stockholders. A business corporation is organized and carried on primarily for the profit of the stockholders. The powers of the directors are to be employed for that end. The discretion of directors is to be exercised in the choice of means to attain that end and does not extend to a change in the end itself, to the reduction of profits or to the nondistribution of profits among stockholders in order to devote them to other purposes.
Justice Russell C. Ostrander, in Dodge v Ford Motor Co., Michigan Supreme Court, 1919
He went on to clarify that they do not want to get in the way of businesses growing, they only want to make sure that businesses handle things like product prices, wages, and other expenses in “good faith” with regards to shareholder value. We certainly have seen these ideas proliferate with shareholder growth often being a top metric that secures executives their performance bonuses, with many executives given raises and bonuses even when not profiting. Many of these bonuses are paid through company stock, or stock options meaning it’s deferred capital gains taxed at a lower rate. Where are these raises and performance bonuses for the workers? There are a number of companies that offer some form of profit sharing with their workers, whether through a 401(k) match or cash dispersals. Cash dispersal are taxed as a special form of earned income at about 40%. 401(k) matches tend to be a fixed amount derived from the wages earned by the worker, making it a bonus based on how much of your time you give to the boss, not the quality of the time given. Under this standard, are workers not given an incentive to do the same amount of work over a longer period of time to earn a larger share of the profits?
If the boss wants to pay for quantity of time instead of quality, we know what to do!
As I have shown, and as seen with recent quality control failures by Boeing, treating workers as expendable parts in the money machine is a heavy cost that cuts deep into profits, in both tangible and intangible ways. We now, as consumers and workers, must find solidarity with those providing us the services we demand, give them the respect they deserve, and show our bosses that we are not afraid of a fellow worker getting more from their work after we’ve all been wrung dry for decades, while our bosses live in mansions and penthouses. We see executives getting bonuses in the millions of dollars, while workers deal with faulty equipment, long outdated but considered “too costly” to update right now. We see business designed with the express intent of pulling as much value from workers as possible, and redistributing it to shareholders. Our system says we are no good unless we provide value to shareholders. I say our system is no good! We must organize to tell our bosses that they’re too costly!
Sources and Further Reading:
The History and Evolution of Retail Stores: From Mom and Pop to Online Shops
Starbucks Targeting LGBT+ Union Organizers in Northeast Ohio
Truly, the bosses at Starbucks know no shame.
I have been following the Starbucks national campaign generally since it began, but now I have the chance to bring to light a new piece of that drama that had seemed beyond my personal horizon.
In the last week of July, I was privileged to have two calls with one of the Organizers of the now successful University Circle Starbucks union campaign. Ken, had just gotten over his own bout with COVID a few days prior, making me even more grateful than I already was. What we discussed has fanned the flames of my own discontent and desire to help all my fellow workers in Northeast Ohio. The stories of his union’s exploits have reshaped my understanding of our area and the wonderful people working to better it.
Solidarity forever! OBU, Joe x409232
P.S. Since writing this, Starbucks hasn’t let up. Corporate continues to fire organizers, harass workers, and manufacture fear. Personally, I don’t think it’ll work. Starbucks Workers are made of tougher stuff than that.
Chapter 1: Workers Unite Around the Starbucks Cup
Starbucks stuff looks good on paper when you’re coming right out the door. ‘Hey, we’re the customer service job that gives you health insurance!’ But you can’t get the hours or the time to go to the doctor.
It was while I was working at Starbucks. I had always been involved in things on the outskirts. I became a member of DSA and an organizer around the same time. I had been to a couple of protests or actions. Friends would call and say they needed support, so I’d show up.
How long did you work at Starbucks?
I started at Starbucks in spring of 2019. I actually left for a time and was re-hired in September 2020. Back then, I had heard Starbucks gave trans-related health care coverage. I had worked customer service jobs at bakeries and restaurants in Little Italy. Previously, I had been living just under the Medicaid line, but I kept getting denied and wasn’t sure why.
Would you say that Starbucks accurately represents itself as a progressive employer?
Starbucks stuff looks good on paper when you’re coming right out the door. ‘Hey, we’re the customer service job that gives you health insurance!’ But you can’t get the hours or the time to go to the doctor. Same thing with the partner cup fund: it comes from baristas, not the company!
How was Starbucks’ health insurance coverage in your case?
Not great. I was making like $10 an hour then and the best plan would’ve taken almost $300 per check. Plus, another $4,000 out of pocket for my top surgery.
If each check is under $600– working as much as my managers let me, how am I supposed to save that? Especially if I have to take time off work!
I had to make a hard choice. I found out I still qualified for Medicaid with my hours at Starbucks. I had slow hours for a few weeks and applied for Medicaid one more time.
What happened after you applied for Medicaid?
We lost staff and my hours got bumped back up. I needed to gross less than $1,382 a month in Ohio, so I needed to be careful. My manager didn’t respect my schedule at that time, so I left in November 2019 and took a job at a nearby bar called ABC the Tavern. That location unfortunately closed during COVID.
Did ABC the Tavern treat you better?
I would’ve never went back to Starbucks had the east side ABC the Tavern not closed. Their west side location hosts DSA meetings. They only have two locations and tried to bring over anyone who wanted to work from the location that closed. They purchased another bar at one point, called Ontario, and they fired none of the workers. They had to close Ontario eventually but they transferred everyone and bumped up pay for people with longer drives.
How did you end up returning to Starbucks?
My manager asked me to reapply. I went back to the Cleveland Clinic location, which was the fourth busiest Starbucks in the country at one point and the busiest in the district.
[Things were so backed up] when I started back there about September 2020, from the time nurses got into the store it took 25 minutes to order and 45 minutes to receive your order. During this time it was only Cleveland Clinic staff ordering!
Chapter 2: Brewing Discontent
They don’t deserve to make more; they’re just making coffee.
What happened that made you finally decide, “Yeah, I’m gonna organize this Starbucks”?
It was approaching winter, I was a shift supervisor. I was watching my baristas just work, and work and work and work.
At that time I was making $13.50. That’s $1 more than I was offered. My baristas were making less than $12, $11.70ish. I think some were making less than $11. Starbucks announced they were raising baristas to $12/hr sometime in October. This bumped shift supervisors to starting at something like $14, I think maybe $15.
In August, the people in Buffalo went public. At first, it didn’t immediately pick up steam for a week or so, before they published their letter or something like that. Around that time is when Starbucks announced the raise to $12.
That clearly wasn’t enough to satisfy you or your fellow workers. Why was that?
Starbucks had its most profitable year in history this previous financial quarter, I believe. Up 7% in 2019, a 28.4% increase in 2020; as of March of 2022 it was a 32.34% increase over the last year. They’ve had record profit growth through the pandemic. $21.9 billion in 2022 as of March! The company’s net income was $4.408 billion, representing a 342% increase.
This increase happened when, in theory, more stores closed and fewer employees were working!
I did the math for Cleveland. In Cuyahoga, with the average cost of living– [what Starbucks offered was] like $200 less than the minimum for a one bedroom apartment, without a roommate or a vehicle. I didn’t factor in car insurance or loans.
So I brought this up with my manager. I felt the people in my role deserved more too but we were at least making enough to live alone with a car.
My manager said, ‘If you wanna make more, go be a nurse. You should go work somewhere else.’ I said, ‘It doesn’t bother you that these people are coming in, working 40 hours a week
and never taking a week off– and still cannot keep their lights on?’ He said, ‘They don’t deserve to make more; they’re just making coffee.’
Luckily, he was on his way out. He left the company less than a month later.
I brought it up with our new manager and, to his credit, he did actually try! He and another manager were drafting a proposal to increase the district barista starting rate. He brought it to the district manager, who is also no longer with the company (and posted publicly it’s because of the company stance on unions). The two of them approached him and he agreed with the proposal for $14.
How did proposing the raise through management turn out?
The regional manager only approved it for Cleveland Clinic stores. I guess we weren’t supposed to talk about it but I just kept talking about it. I said, ‘Clearly this isn’t enough, this isn’t correct. The people living in Cleveland Heights or Lakewood still need to pay rent and keep their lights on.’
We were coached in a meeting that, hey, it’s obvious the baristas are bummed lately, so try to help raise their spirits. ‘Ask what’s wrong, seem invested in them,’ that’s what the store manager told us. And I said, ‘What if the problem is they can’t pay their bills or buy food, no matter how many hours they work here?’
He said we could direct them to the partner cup fund that the baristas (not the company) pay into. But to even qualify you have to drain your entire 401k first!
After your regional manager denied workers their raises, what was your next move?
I reached out to the people in Buffalo about a month after the talk with the first manager. Buffalo went public and I brought my concerns up with the second manager.
Richard Bensinger from Workers United spoke with me when I reached out. I said, ‘Hey, I support what you’re doing. People here are working their asses off without even a place to live. What do you need from me? What can I do? I want to commit myself to this.’
It was amazing being able to see what a bunch of people like myself and the other baristas were able to do! Especially because they have crazy rules in Buffalo. Like it’s against the rules to be friends with the people you work with and so they’ll transfer you if you’re too friendly on the floor together.
What did you bring back from Buffalo?
Well, I was trying to work at the Cleveland Clinic location but the turnover rate is 92% or something like that. It’s really intense there. Most of the people there will quit within 90 days. Maybe the ones that don’t are there for a year.
People just got burned out. We’d get 2-3 people, and we’d get a fourth, but by then someone would quit. It was hell working there. I watched seven people get fired in the year, just in the middle of our lobby. So I don’t blame the people that left.
In October 2021, I reached out to a friend working at the University Circle location: Ava. ‘Have you seen what’s going on in Buffalo?’
I was at the Clinic for about a year and a half, till about November 2021. I was trying to do all this organizing work mostly alone. I approached Ava and she got the fire [to organize], too. Ava never took a leave of absence during COVID. She had been working for four years. She worked all through the pandemic.
So I scheduled an organizing conversation with her. We talked and I was just being honest with her: if you were able to make enough as a barista to survive, would you be a shift supervisor? ‘No, I wouldn’t be.’
A week later Ava came back and about 8 people were interested. So it was like– eight people, holy shit!
I had a conversation with my manager and she said she could make 30-35 hours (primarily in the mornings) work for me. I was transferred about three weeks later and we got to work!
What if the problem is they can’t pay their bills or buy food, no matter how many hours they work here?
Did you have any mentors or partners who helped with building your union?
Oh, yeah. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing!
Alex, another organizing partner, started making our friends and foes list, our “1-4s.” A lot of us didn’t know where to really start.
Pete got me connected to Akshai, who goes by Shay. Shay has organizing experience and is a member of Cleveland DSA. They’ve been connected to Pete and involved in everything. Anything Cleveland community based Shay is involved in. I’ve never met someone who does more. For example, they helped start Safer Heights in Cleveland Heights, an organization that holds police accountable for BIPOC safety.
Pete set up a meeting for Shay and me at a coffee shop. They’re the greatest, chillest human ever. They wanted to salt with me and I was like, ‘Absolutely!’ They brought our friend Lisa on– I refer to her as the brains. She has an organizing brain and has done organizing work, but she knows when, why, and how to call people. She’s so, so, so kind and a delight to be around and has put so much work into this campaign.
The three of us made a pretty good base. From there, Lisa started helping get our organizing conversations together: scheduling calls, reaching out to DSA. At that point I’d gotten involved [with DSA] too.
Chapter 3: 215℉ and Boiling Over
You don’t have to work and work and work alone until you die. That there are people who want to support you and want to support a true community.
How would you describe the overall success of Starbucks Workers United?
Our store was the 200th win! It’s been less than a year! It’s pretty amazing. I don’t know that there have been any official losses– I think they’ve been appealed and discovered there was Starbucks fuckery. Scabs right before the vote, hiring and firing right before, stuff like that.
Part of why the other Cleveland three stores were unanimous and ours wasn’t is because of the amount of fuckery at our store. Most people receive a date within 30 days of filing [for a recognized union] and we had to wait four months. Cleveland NLRB is completely overwhelmed. You see the same, like, three people every time you meet with them.
The Crocker Park location in West Lake filed for their union last week. That will be number five in the Cleveland area. From what I understand there are more people organizing at this point but no one has filed yet. So that’s pretty awesome.
What kind of collective actions have you taken as a union?
We had a sip-in at the UC location. At least 35 people showed up. That was pretty amazing. The union was at that point real to everyone on the organizing committee. But this made it real to everyone else.
Our ‘bananas’ manager even came for it. She worked a 13 hour shift so she could stay and watch the DSA be there for our sip-in. She stayed the whole time. I was like, ‘Girl go home, You are not getting paid for this!’
We had a rally outside a management meeting and about 50 people showed up. Management chickened out before we could confront them. We learned to hide next time and not show up 15 minutes early, or they just run or hide in the back until we leave.
What were your biggest successes during the campaign?
The wage increase is completely because of Starbucks Workers United and the work we’ve all done. Corporate told people they’d start at $15 in July– but they didn’t do it. Now they say they’ll do it in August but we’ll see. But the wage increases have already been significant for these low hourly markets.
A huge success is coming to know that you don’t have to work and work and work alone until you die. That there are people who want to support you and want to support a true community.
And seeing how scared Starbucks is! They’ve put millions into retaining Littler Mendelson, one of the biggest union busting law firms in the world. They’ve been working against Workers United since Buffalo. It’s nice to see ‘em scared.
To know that we have the worker power, that a tiny shop in Buffalo could start this…
What strategies have benefitted you the most in building the union?
Keep it on the downlow before you file, of course.
Showing up for your coworkers, remembering you’re all working together. Nobody wants to go to work everyday and have it be shitty all the time. That little bit of solidarity is a great place to start.
You don’t have to love everybody you’re working with, just respect. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.
When it was all going on at the store, people would say they didn’t want to quit or find another job, and you don’t have to. You can work to make the workplace you’re in safer, more equitable. I understand why the long timers love this company because of how they treated you 10 or 20 years ago but it isn’t the case anymore. Just being able to talk to people so they understand why you’re doing this, what you’re working towards, is a good place to start.
What helped you win over more hesitant coworkers?
What helped with ‘maybes’ is asking what would make them say, yes. ‘What would make you say yes? What would make you say no?’ Because we did have a few people who were hard ‘maybes’ for a while.
We ended up winning because one of our hard ‘maybes’ switched to ‘yes.’ The vote at our store was 11-9. (My ballot was thrown out or it’d have been 12.) We knew there were 10 other yeses outside myself– and our 11th was our maybe. I think a lot of what changed her mind was the passion behind other people, knowing that the people organizing with you don’t hate the company but want it to be a better place for everyone who works there.
Prior to this, our manager, Stefanie, while really drinking the Starbucks Kool Aid, had always been pretty easy to get along with and work with.
The biggest challenge we were facing before we filed was that people were asking if it would negatively impact Stefanie. I said, ‘No, we’ll do everything we can to make her job safe.’ We only have so much power.
She kind of took care of that obstacle on her own, though. Workers didn’t like her much after the union-busting.
But Stef couldn’t change benefits, couldn’t raise pay, or really do anything. She’s not the one holding us at low level wages. Corporate is doing that to remain profitable. But the cost of living in Buffalo was lower than it was in Cleveland and they were starting $4hr higher than our baristas, $2 higher an hour than I was. Yet our stores are far more profitable because of the area they’re in.
Chapter 4: Corporate Flips the Frappe Out
Every pro-union worker had hours cut by at least 30%.
How has Starbucks responded since your union went public?
In February of this year, the West 6th location filed for a union. The other three Cleveland locations that filed were unanimous. They were able to do that more or less before they even filed.
In response to the West 6th filing, our store had mandatory captive audience meetings from corporate. The awful union busting district manager Beth, who has a podcast, replaced our manager that was trying to help get raises.
Ava had been averaging 35-40 hours and had been cut to 10. Then to five. Then to zero. During this time she got another job and said she’d restrict her availability. Stef said, ‘You can’t be a shift supervisor with that restricted availability.’ Ava asked if she’d be able to retain her employment if she stepped down from that role. Stef didn’t respond– this was all over text. So Ava moved some restrictions around. Stef never responded and continued to schedule her for zero hours. She only responded to Ava when she finally texted her to drop off her keys.
Ava had worked there for four years and through the entire pandemic. She ended up quitting. Good for her.
Has Starbucks targeted other local workers?
Every pro-union worker had hours cut by at least 30%. About a week after that, we filed sooner than we wanted to– but it was becoming impossible. We had 26 employees or so at our location. We ballooned to 36 over the next several months. All of our hours were cut.
There was another young pro-union member, Jane [Editor: name changed for privacy]. She was maybe 19 or 20. She had worked for Starbucks before but left for school.
She’d been accepted at another location but if managers can prove they have a higher need, they can take a new hire if they haven’t started somewhere yet. So she started at our store as shift supervisor. She’s great, bubbly, a really hard worker, and great at her job.
Managers started berating her as soon as she joined the union movement– just being really critical of her.
After we filed, a customer came in and asked if she could use the phone to call 911 because she wasn’t feeling well.Jane called for her and went into the lobby to sit with her. She held her hand while the customer started having seizures. I was able to go check and monitor the situation.
The next time she came in Stef reprimanded Jane for calling EMS and sitting with the customer until they arrived. I can’t imagine being so mad about a union that you’re upset with someone for helping during an emergency situation. This person had never had a seizure before. That’s terrifying.
Working at Starbucks was no longer good for Jane’s mental health. The constant critical bullshit from management continued and she took time off, then left Starbucks specifically because the atmosphere was far too stressful. Someone overdosed in the location bathrooms and workers found their body. These people make less than $11 an hour.
They cut out all regularity so you can’t sleep or eat or make any sort of life for yourself. They changed schedules midweek so that people would miss their shifts.
What can you tell me about how Starbucks’s actions have affected you and other organizers?
There are two Starbucks locations inside Cleveland Clinic. I was averaging 40-45 hours weekly for the first few months. Then COVID spiked in the winter and I averaged 60-70 hours a week.
I took a mental leave of absence during the campaign. We’ve had two partners hospitalized in mental health facilities and two or three take mental leaves of absence. The same can be said in other districts.
Has Starbucks’ union busting been smart for the company?
Not at all. If Starbucks had just done what the union wanted from the beginning they’d have spent far less. They are spending millions on anti-union lawyers. They brought back Howard Schultz who claims he isn’t taking a salary. Two CEOs have stepped down, Kevin Johnson and Rossanne Williams.
What tactics are they deploying to bust your union?
Firing somebody through not scheduling them has happened quite a bit. That’s how a lot of it started.
At Starbucks you have to maintain 20 hours or so weekly to keep health insurance. So if they cut you below that and tell you there’s no more hours for you, you lose insurance, college benefits– almost everything if you don’t meet the minimum.
After we filed, for about four months straight I worked two opening shifts a week (4:30 AM), two closing (till 9:30PM), and a midshift. They cut out all regularity so you can’t sleep or eat or make any sort of life for yourself. They changed schedules midweek so that people would miss their shifts. Managers would reprimand people on the floor in front of everyone, changing rules and procedures as they went and not applying rules to all the staff.
How did they apply rules to union staff and nonunion staff differently?
For example, another employee was no-call-no-showing, had sexual harassment allegations from another partner, and that employee never got fired.
But a union worker was fired for missing a shift that was changed midweek. Anti-union people had their hours increased; one of them had been working the same hours for about ten years. Another [antiunion] worker, who had been there about 17 years with the same schedule, had her hours increased.
Starbucks has now made it so you have to work a certain number of hours a week. We think it might be a way to get rid of union people who are in school or working multiple jobs. You must be available for a minimum of 18 hours per week to get scheduled for 12. It’s only for nonunion stores or ones not currently in the union process.
In what ways is Starbucks targeting queer and trans organizers like yourself?
We had partners who started working at Starbucks because they needed that health insurance. And now they’re not able to have access to insurance. We have a partner who had abnormalities on a routine check and hasn’t been able to afford the $4,000 out of pocket ultrasound to see what’s going on.
A manager told me I should’ve thought about paying my bills before transferring to another store.
I hit my head and got cauliflower ear– my coworker offered to cover me so I could leave early. The manager made fun of me in front of a new employee– a scab she hired. “Oh you’re a little sore?” No, my ear is filling up with blood.
Lisa had a concussion and had to get her shift covered last-minute. The manager told her it was ‘completely unacceptable’ and that she could never do that again.
One worker,TK, a person of color, was jumped. The first thing a manager asked was, “Was he black?”
I expressed that a long term employee had been making racially insensitive comments and made others uncomfortable. “Oh, she would never do that,” the manager said. She did, I witnessed it.
Can you tell me about when Starbucks fired you?
Sure. I have my termination notice in front of me.
I started receiving write-ups constantly for things that aren’t even in my job description or were not communicated to me. I hadn’t really been written up before.
I was written up for not having enough people to put a truck delivery order away during a shift. That doesn’t have to be done by the person there when it arrives; it’s done before closing through the day.
I was also written up for not “assigning tills”– literally taking an employee’s name off and putting another on. Before then, this was never an issue.
Here’s one from a day my manager didn’t even work. I apparently didn’t complete a station restock in one area of the store. It was “not filled to satisfaction” or something, but my manager wasn’t even there that day. Anyone who was there to inform her wouldn’t have had any authority to do so.
These writeups were all within three days, between the 8th-11th.
By this point we had already begun an unfair labor practice (ULP) suit on behalf of Ava, Jane, myself, and the worker whose shift was changed midweek. They began the process of separation for me– it became pretty obvious they were firing me.
After I received my write up, my last one more or less– a final warning in June– I asked in the beginning to step down from shift supervisor to barista. Citing the level of stress not being doable for me at that point, I just needed to take a step back.
My boss OKed the role change but then told me that ‘at this point it will take a little while for the paperwork to go through since a company lawyer is already involved.’ I was like, ‘Oh, I’m getting fired.’ I let my union people know what was going on. I was fired about a month later. Our ULP was sent to the store manager– she was informed– and she took a random 10 day vacation.
So the day I returned to work as a barista was the day I was fired by the district manager and West 6th Street store manager.
What was the actual reason they gave for firing you?
They fired me for “failure to execute shift supervisor approach” which was no longer the role I was in at that time. I had already expressed that I wasn’t doing a great job as shift supervisor due to the boss’s constant “coaching.” But I do a fine job as a barista and needed the money, the hours. Otherwise how could I perform that role for a year and a half at the second busiest store in the country?
They fired you from a position you weren’t in?
Fired me from a position I wasn’t in!
OK– you know I have to ask how it all went down.
I clocked in at 8 AM at Starbucks the day I was fired and… the daily coverage report showed I had a period scheduled for non-coverage. Usually training or something off the floor.
I approached the manager running the floor and asked if there was training that needed to be done. She gave me a task to start working on. 10 minutes later Taylor from W 6th and Beth, our district manager, show up.
“Beth and Taylor wanna talk to you.”
“Yeah, I know.”
One girl who had been on the fence about the union watched me get fired! I said, ‘It’s happening!’ She said, ‘No, it’s not, you haven’t done anything wrong.’
So Beth told me that ‘we’re separating you for failure to execute the shift supervisor approach.’ She said, ‘Don’t reach out to Stef–’ didn’t before, wouldn’t now– and started listing what I’ve told you.
“I hadn’t heard of a lot of the things listed there. My manager didn’t try coaching me through these situations, but I understand that you are separating me.”
They asked me to sign the paperwork and I said, no. They were like, ‘OK, we’ll go get your bag– you cannot go back there.’ I said I’d feel more comfortable if a friend grabbed it for me. “My bike is out front, I’m walking out front.”
“Leave your shift supervisor keys.”
“I don’t have any. I’M NOT A SHIFT SUPERVISOR.”
Classic. What’d you do with your newfound day off?
I was home by 8:35. So my amazing friend Lisa says, ‘Let’s go celebrate.’ By 11:15, we’re at this great bagel shop, Nubeigel. The owner comes out and says he’s running out of bagels. He jokingly asks if anyone needs a job.
How are your fellow workers holding up under the pressure?
Morale is really low from all the union busting tactics.
Our Workers United rep, Matthew, says our University location has had more union busting than any of the other stores he’s working with. It was honestly pretty unexpected.
What has been the reaction from the community towards your union push?
Cleveland DSA held a rally after I was fired. (I couldn’t be there because I had COVID!) I found this amazing community, so many kind people who came together because they wanna help. Not just with Starbucks, with everything. Having people from DSA come out and help– I don’t think people struggling at their hourly rate realize there are hundreds of people here who are ready to help them.
I fully, genuinely believe workers rights are human rights. With the way everything is going, knowing something might happen but the Union has your back… not just work, but at home. If you need to get out of a situation, call your union, call your lawyer.
Knowing there’s that community and safety net behind you is amazing. Even getting the job at Nubeigel– if I hadn’t been organizing with Lisa I’d probably still be looking for a job. I wouldn’t have this amazing community, or have connected with IWW, doing all the things I’m doing now.
How can members of the Northeast Ohio IWW and the broader community help?
There is a Starbucks Workers United gofundme. That’s a big one, that directly goes to us. Just in the past three days we’ve had four or five people in our group chat say they need emergency funds to help with rent and bills. Everyone has had to cut into their savings and use all their PTO to not die. Donating to that directly is REALLY helpful.
If any folks are involved with DSA, their primary Cleveland labor campaign is Starbucks. Come out and help them at their events.
Go to your local Starbucks and talk about how awesome the movement is! “Did you hear about Cleveland? Their stores are 4/4 now!” Say hi to the union workers and say how awesome it is that they’re doing this. Morale is down, they need it! There has been a lot of retaliation; only one person at West 6th is left who was on the organizing committee.
Remind Starbucks workers about their Weingarten rights– you can start doing that NOW. If your manager says, can we talk, and you ask if the conversation involves any disciplinary action, you can say, “OK, I’ll wait for my union rep!”
If someone doesn’t want to support Starbucks right now, go in, order a water under Union Push or something similar, and tip in cash. We’re not asking at all for a boycott at this point. People have to pay their bills.
You can also tip cash in Starbucks. You cannot actually tip on your card at the register. They do more retail this way than Google Pay and many other major companies.
Do you feel any resentment toward Starbucks after all this?
We as people deserve to live, but I don’t hate Starbucks. They do and support good things. But they deserve people who want the job because it fuels them and they enjoy it and do it well, not because they have to keep the lights on.
Why should other workers consider organizing?
Organizing has been one of the most fulfilling parts of my life so far. Even if today isn’t a success, people showed up. Next time, double it. You’re lighting a fire in the community that is so long overdue.
Starbucks worked us as hard as they physically could for record profits. In corporate, you’re a number. In a union, you’re a comrade.
