Starbucks baristas increasingly aim to unionize after Buffalo victory
Boston-based Starbucks baristas Ash O'Neill and Kylah Clay join Yahoo Finance Live to discuss why they are leading a unionization effort.
Video Transcript
- Starbucks workers at two stores around Boston, they are pushing to unionize. The stores on Commonwealth Avenue and Harvard Street are feeding off the momentum of that Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, where they successfully voted to unionize-- excuse me-- unionize nearly two weeks ago. And joining us with more on this is Yahoo Finance's Dani Romero, who's joined by Starbucks baristas Kylah Clay and Ash O'Neill. Dani, take it away, please.
DANI ROMERO: Yeah, hi there. Let's start with what fueled you to file this union petition, and why now?
ASH O'NEILL: So we obviously were inspired by the baristas in Buffalo to take initiative, collective action to ensure that our voices are heard. We all really feel that Starbucks is a great company to work for, and we just want to make it better by amplifying the voices of the partners on the ground. And especially with all of the supply shortages that we've been dealing with, with the pandemic and everything, I really feel like now is the time to make this change and make this move.
DANI ROMERO: Yeah, what are you hoping to accomplish, then?
KYLAH CLAY: I think we ultimately want to be active participants in the decision-making process that impacts our baristas and community. That often comes down from corporate. And you know, we know the store very well. The baristas here know what we need. And we just want to be-- to have a voice in the company.
DANI ROMERO: And following to that point, Kayla, you know, I saw you the letter that you sent to CEO Kevin Johnson. What has been the response from that letter? Has anything changed in the work environment? And any lobbying from Starbucks yet?
KYLAH CLAY: Yeah, so we did not receive a response to that letter, but Ash, I believe we did receive another response from Samantha, our regional manager.
ASH O'NEILL: Yes. She sent us out an email, basically explaining, like recognizing that we filed our petition, and what's going to happen. They basically said that they're going to create a space for us to ask one-on-one questions and for us to get all the facts from them, which we are a bit worried about because, given what's happened in Buffalo, we know that these listening sessions, which are already scheduled for us for the week of January 3rd, we're pretty certain that they're probably just going to be giving us a lot of stuff about how bad unions are for us.
- And Ash, you know--
KYLAH CLAY: Yeah, we--
DANI ROMERO: --why are we-- oh, sorry, continue. No, no, continue what you were going to say.
KYLAH CLAY: Yeah, I was going to say we've also had our district manager and the regional manager have been coming into the store multiple times now to either introduce themselves to baristas that they had never met or just say hi to every one of us. But we do expect to see them much more often now after the holidays.
DANI ROMERO: Yeah, what's-- I guess what's been the overall response, I mean from either store, you can tell us from customers, as well as workers, since you guys filed this petition? And you know, do you believe that workers are actually going to vote in favor of this measure?
ASH O'NEILL: So we already know that our team at our store is very close. And I believe it's the same with Coolidge Corner, as well. We all consider each other like really close friends. And I think that since launching all of this, we've honestly maybe come closer together. We've been holding like a couple outside meetings with our coworkers to explain what's going to happen as we move forward with this, answer any questions that they may have. Kylah, do you want to add anything?
KYLAH CLAY: Yeah, I think that we all share a commitment to Starbucks and a passion to continuously making it better. And I know that some of us are definitely scared of what might happen with corporate coming in, but we have a strong community and we feel confident moving forward that we can continue to support one another.
ASH O'NEILL: And the--
DANI ROMERO: And Kayla, what--
ASH O'NEILL: --feedback from the community--
DANI ROMERO: Oh, sorry.
ASH O'NEILL: --has also been-- sorry, I just wanted to say that the customers have also been really great. We've been getting a couple of mobile order stickers that say solidarity from Buffalo. We've gotten a couple people coming in and telling us they've heard what's going on, and they're very happy and excited for us. So around everything, like from our community, we've heard good feedback.
DANI ROMERO: Yeah, and one last thing to wrap this all up because we got a little bit of time, but Ash, you know, why are we seeing more Starbucks stores really push to unionize? I know that you also participate in the SB union organization in Buffalo. So why are we seeing this push?
ASH O'NEILL: I definitely think that Buffalo really has kicked this whole thing off. And especially after winning the Elmwood store, it's really hopeful. We obviously started this whole process before any of the votes came out, but we didn't actually start talking to our other coworkers until after because we thought it would be a good time to see like, hey, this store managed to do it, we can do that, too. It's possible for us.
KYLAH CLAY: Yeah. And I think that baristas, and workers in general, are pushing to unionize right now. There's this push because we want an opportunity to meaningfully and actively participate in our workplace. And you know, I think each store is unique and their needs are different for each Starbucks, but ultimately, I think we just want that chance to voice those needs.
