This Victory of Starbucks Employees In Buffalo Will Reverberate Across America: Robert Reich

[appalachiablue]

- Starbucks employees celebrate after unionization votes are counted on Dec. 9, 2021 in Buffalo, New York.
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- The Guardian, Dec. 10, 2021. - Ed.

Workers in one Starbucks store, in Buffalo, New York, made history on Thursday by becoming Starbuck’s first unionized workplace. It’s a watershed for the biggest coffee seller in the world, which operates 8,953 stores in the U.S. - and which has done everything in its power to keep its workers from forming a union. The vote itself was tiny. There were 19 baristas and shift supervisors who voted in favor of unionizing, 8 voted against. But it marked a huge victory, nonetheless. Starbucks had waged a massive anti-union campaign in Buffalo- sending out-of-town managers & even executives into stores to discourage unionizing, closing down some stores, & packing remaining stores with new employees in order to dilute pro-union employees’ voting power.

For years, Starbucks workers have complained about the company’s labor practices, claiming that chronic understaffing has created a chaotic work environment, unpredictable hours, & difficulty in taking sick days. Despite episodic commitments by Starbucks management to change, the complaints have continued. They intensified during the pandemic when overstretched Starbucks employees had to deal with new health risks & safety protocols. The union election marks one of the highest-profile union wins in memory for US restaurant workers, who are among the least unionized in the country & whose pay and benefits are among the lowest in all of corporate America. It’s certain to encourage more unionizing efforts among workers in restaurant chains.

What occurred on Thursday at one Starbucks store is part of a much larger pattern- a surge in strikes & labor actions across America.

Kellogg’s striking workers are still holding the line & refusing to allow the company to separate employees into tiers (with newer workers getting lower pay & benefits). Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Ala. will get another chance to unionize (the National Labor Relations Board found that Amazon used unfair labor practices in the recent election there). And 3,000 student workers at Columbia University have been on strike for 6 weeks to demand better pay & health care (on Monday, at least 100 members of the Columbia faculty joined them on the picket line).
- What’s going on? Partly, low-wage workers have more bargaining leverage now than they’ve had in years. As the pandemic recedes (let’s hope it continues to), consumers are spending at a higher rate than they have in over 20 months. To respond to this surge in pent-up demand, employers are seeking workers.

At the same time, workers across America are taking a fresh look at their jobs. Record-high “quit” rates & near record low rates of labor-participation suggest that a significant number are asking themselves if they want to go back to their old jobs- & are answering “no.” Part of the “no” is an unwillingness to settle for their former wages & working conditions- esp. in big companies (like Starbucks, Amazon, & Kelloggs) whose profits have been sky-high. (Or even in richly-endowed universities like Columbia.) That “no” is also reverberating across America in the form of strikes. Many of these workers were on the front lines in the pandemic, & now feel it’s time for their efforts to be rewarded. At a deeper level, I suspect the pandemic itself has caused many people to reevaluate what they’re doing with their lives & to set different priorities for themselves.

For years, many big corporations like Starbucks have sold themselves as “socially-responsible” — offering consumers the soothing reassurance that in buying their products they’re somehow advancing the common good...

- More,
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/10/this-victory-of-starbucks-employees-in-buffalo-will-reverberate-across-america
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- Also: "History made!" Buffalo Starbucks workers vote to form chain's first union in U.S. The coffee chain launched an aggressive anti-union campaign as three of its stores attempted to unionize. Salon, Dec. 9, 2021.
https://www.salon.com/2021/12/09/history-made-buffalo-starbucks-workers-vote-to-form-chains-first-union-in-us_partner/

[BeckyDem]

1. Yep!

K&R In solidarity.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

2. Unions built up the Middle Class. The Middle Class built America..

Prior to and after WWII.

Unions provided bargaining opportunities for workers to be appreciated, thus benefitting employers as well with a reliable and trained workforce . Unions provided workers with dignity and benefits worth fighting for.

Good for the Starbucks crew in Buffalo. Perhaps now, more than ever, ther workers realize they are not expendable like a piece of tissue paper. For the company or business that takes care of its people, the people will take care of the customers. Everybody wins.

[appalachiablue]

3. Well said, the decline in unionization here is directly

related to the demise of America's middle class, once the largest in the world and surpassed by Canada around 10 years ago. Unions = democracy in the workplace.
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- 'Big Lie: America Doesn't Have #1 Richest Middle-Class in the World: We're Ranked 27th!' July 28, 2014. Les Leopold. .. This opulence is supposed to trickle down to the rest of us, improving the lives of everyday Americans. At least that's what free-market cheerleaders repeatedly promise us. Unfortunately, it's a lie, one of the biggest ever perpetrated on the American people.
Our middle class is falling further and further behind in comparison to the rest of the world. We keep hearing that America is number one. Well, when it comes to middle-class wealth, we're number 27...
https://m.usw.org/blog/2014/big-lie-america-doesnt-have-1-richest-middle-class-in-the-world-were-ranked-27th
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- The national teachers revolt began in West Virginia. Public school teachers in West Virginia started a national movement when they launched a major strike last February (2018).
https://www.vox.com/2019/2/19/18231486/west-virginia-teacher-strike-2019

[MichMan]

4. Kind of depends on what the contract ends up as.