Workers at the downtown Pleasanton Starbucks store are trying to unionize.
The employees at the store want to join the Starbucks Workers United union, like employees at three other Bay Area stores and others nationwide, organizers said Friday.
Employees -- or partners as they are also called at the store, located at Main Street and Rose Avenue -- filed a petition Friday with the National Labor Relations Board to unionize.
Workers said in a letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz that they received an unexplained cut in hours and are finding it challenging to pay their bills. The employees also feel their needs are being neglected regularly.
"We are unionizing because we have tried everything else," said Elise Lester, a partner and organizer at the Pleasanton store. "It is time we have a say in decisions that directly affect us and our livelihoods."
Starbucks' corporate office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the action by the Pleasanton store's workers.
Comments
Registered user
Downtown
on Mar 4, 2023 at 12:16 pm
Registered user
on Mar 4, 2023 at 12:16 pm
Just heard the Starbucks is trying to unionize... That place has been going down since covid. I hope Starbucks closes them.
Registered user
Danbury Park
on Mar 4, 2023 at 5:43 pm
Registered user
on Mar 4, 2023 at 5:43 pm
ummm john...you might want to google "starbucks union judge". spoiler alert, they have to reopen all the stores they illegally closed and pay restitution to workers.
Registered user
Happy Valley
on Mar 4, 2023 at 7:00 pm
Registered user
on Mar 4, 2023 at 7:00 pm
The few times that we have gone into this Starbucks location has been disappointing. Mostly due to inattentive workers who don't seem to care much for customer service. They especially despise answering questions to clarify there confusing menu. Each of our visits we've been made to feel they were going out of their way to serve us so we don't go in there anymore. Inklings and Peets are much better choices. It would be OK with me if corporate closed up this Starbucks location.
Registered user
Pleasanton Meadows
on Mar 4, 2023 at 9:59 pm
Registered user
on Mar 4, 2023 at 9:59 pm
Shut it down
Registered user
Stoneridge
on Mar 4, 2023 at 11:42 pm
Registered user
on Mar 4, 2023 at 11:42 pm
Resident………Not sure that the court can make you re-open a store if you closed it because you were not making a proper return on your investment. What they did in the case you cited is to require Starbucks to reinstate at worker that was a union organizer they had fired. If they just close the store I’m not sure they can make you open it back up just so you can lose money. Of course the left leaning NLRB doesn’t rule against unions very often, if ever.
Registered user
Danbury Park
on Mar 5, 2023 at 9:43 am
Registered user
on Mar 5, 2023 at 9:43 am
Carl, google it. judgement cam,e last week.
"The decision issued late Wednesday by Administrative Law Judge Michael Rosas of the National Labor Relations Board requires Starbucks to post a 13-page notice listing its labor violations and workers' rights in all U.S. stores.
The order also requires Starbucks' interim CEO Howard Schultz to read or be present at a reading of employees' rights and distribute a recording of the reading to all of Starbucks' U.S. employees.
Rosas cited Starbucks' "egregious and widespread misconduct" in his 200-page decision, which consolidated 35 unfair labor practice complaints at 21 Buffalo-area stores filed by Starbucks Workers United, the labor union organizing Starbucks' stores. Rosas found that Starbucks had threatened employees, spied on them and more strictly enforced dress codes and other policies.
The order requires Starbucks to reinstate seven workers who were fired for their union activity and provide financial restitution for 27 other workers for violations like refusing to grant time off. It also requires Starbucks to bargain with the union at multiple stores and reopen a location in Cheektowaga, New York, that was closed amid significant union activity.
Registered user
Old Towne
on Mar 6, 2023 at 10:01 am
Registered user
on Mar 6, 2023 at 10:01 am
I don't go to Starbucks anymore since Inklings opened!
Registered user
Vintage Hills
on Mar 6, 2023 at 12:58 pm
Registered user
on Mar 6, 2023 at 12:58 pm
I have a coffeepot at home and know how to use it.
Registered user
Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Mar 8, 2023 at 11:25 am
Registered user
on Mar 8, 2023 at 11:25 am
I am not a coffee drinker and have never been to this Starbucks, but I hope the union effort is successful. Most, if not all, of the people who are against a place like this unionizing have never been in a union, so they simply do not understand. These employees have no voice, unionizing gives them a voice.
Starbucks will, I presume, follow the standard anti-union playbook. They will bring in new employees who will help make the store run better and make the current employees happier, trying to get them to think they don't need to unionize. These new employees are actually corporate workers who are trained to do this, making far more money than the actual current employees.
Web Link
Registered user
Pleasanton Meadows
on Mar 9, 2023 at 9:39 pm
Registered user
on Mar 9, 2023 at 9:39 pm
Get the facts
They do have a voice, Starbucks is one of the most employee friendly companies providing benefits to part time employees, going deep on training, etc. additionally no one is forced to work at Starbucks.
Unions are terrible, they only exist for themselves and incentivize a continued divide in order to remain in existence. We have labor laws, safety organizations, and loads of other protections for workers. If you don’t think they’re good enough fire the politicians writing them, don’t add another ineffective bureaucratic layer that just robs employees of pay