Biddeford Starbucks Workers Launch One-Day Strike to Protest Illegal Union Busting
Baristas with Starbucks Workers United launched a one-day strike at the Starbucks on Alfred Street in Biddeford on Monday to protest company union busting. Since forming the first Starbucks union in Maine in July, SB United members say the company has engaged in illegal unfair labor practices including retaliating against workers and cutting store hours by closing five hours early each day. This has resulted in employees losing several hours a day.
“The union-busting campaign has gone on for too long now,” SB United leader Ash Macomber, who works at the Biddeford location, told the Portland Press Herald.
On Labor Day, union workers and members of the community joined Biddeford workers in picketing the store while waving signs that read “Pumpkin Strike Latte” and “People over profit.” Workers also posted “wanted” posters for Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz “alive at the bargaining table.”
SB United member Stephanie Elliott told the Portland Press Herald that she wasn’t surprised that the company would retaliate against workers nationally, but was surprised it happened in Biddeford.
“I was a little shocked it happened in our store because our store manager is incredible. It just doesn’t make sense,” she said, adding that she thinks false information and decision-making are coming from upper management.
So far, Starbucks workers at nearly 300 Starbucks locations have voted in union elections and 85 percent have voted to unionize. Workers in more than 235 Starbucks stores in 33 states have affiliated with Starbucks Workers United.
Starbucks has responded with a litany of illegal retaliations including firing union organizers, withholding raises to union employees and closing stores. The National Labor Relations Board has filed nearly 20 unfair labor practice complaints against the company covering 81 cases filed by Starbucks with hundreds more being processed. The NLRB has found merit in 97 separate allegations out of 634 alleged violations of labor law so far.