Starbucks workers at the 9251 Baltimore National Pike store in Ellicott City have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to unionize with Starbucks Workers United, according to a press release. The local store partners/employees are joining a nationwide movement of hundreds of stores and thousands of baristas organizing for better working conditions.
“The union organizing effort is important in our store because we can’t truly be partners until we have a seat at the table,” said Anja Alden, a two-year partner at the Ellicott City store. “We’re tired of being divided and pitted against each other. We are coming together to ensure that our interests are represented. The drive for profit above all else has left us and our customers feeling disregarded.”
Workers sent a letter to Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan to announce their organizing campaign. In the letter, they explain their decision to file for unionization “stems from the ongoing scheduling conflicts and insufficient hours allocation that have negatively impacted our work experience.”
“The transgender partners in our store have been demoralized by Starbucks’ unilateral decision to modify their supplemental transgender health coverage, a decision that left us with fewer options for treatment of our gender dysphoria,” the workers continued in their letter to Narasimhan. “Those of use that were planning to utilize this coverage were also informed of this decision, leaving us scrambling to find new providers, often at a higher cost than we had anticipated paying prior to the change.”
Within The Business Monthly’s drawing area, the Starbucks location at 1700 West Nursery Road, in Linthicum, has also unionized, among several others in Maryland.
As for the corporation, Starbucks has launched a union-busting campaign that includes firing more than 230 union leaders across the country and shuttering union stores; and the NLRB has issued more than 80 official complaints encompassing more than 1,400 violations against the company, per numerous media outlets.
Starbucks Workers United is the union drive that has taken the labor movement by storm, with more new unions formed in 12 months than any U.S. company in the last 20 years. There are now more than 300 Starbucks stores in 38 states and the District of Columbia that have unionized.