Organizing a Texas Starbucks
Workers are tired of their living conditions as the pandemic eases
Ibegan working at Starbucks in Denton for what I thought would be just a year after I graduated from high school. That was four years ago. I stayed because partners — that's what employees are called — treated me well. Our wages increased. If you worked more than 20 hours per week, you got health insurance, and the extension to include medical procedures for trans partners meant a lot to me. Each day, I figured I could stay with the company just a bit longer and the idea that I would be fighting for a union never occurred to me.
Now I'm part of what some labor experts consider the biggest unionizing push in decades. So what changed? These days my fellow partners talk to me about unpredictable hours and an inability to pay rent, buy groceries, go to the doctor and afford a decent standard of living. They joined the company for the same reasons I did, but now we're all scrambling for hours as benefits hang over our heads, just out of reach.
“I'm completely uninsured and it's terrifying,” barista Priya Chaudhari told me. “All my meds are out of pocket and it's tough knowing if I can even afford them anymore.”
When partners at Starbucks locations in Buffalo, N.Y., announced their intent to unionize, the possibility of doing the same in Denton barely registered in my mind. The idea seemed a faint whisper that would fade away. It wasn't until Buffalo shocked the nation by succeeding that we started to believe that a union could be possible. The whisper turned into a roar as more and more Starbucks stores across the country announced their intent to unionize. Twenty-eight locations have voted to form a union out of 31 stores that voted and more than 220 in 31 states have sought union elections, including three in Austin, two in San Antonio and our little spot in Denton.
It can be hard for regular customers to understand why this is happening, why their cheerful baristas would do
this when Starbucks is known for providing good benefits, including college tuition. Let me put you in our shoes.
COVID-19 hit our store particularly hard in January 2022, with dozens of partners testing positive. That made every shift chaotic. Four out of seven people scheduled for shifts would be unable to come in some days. One partner would be running through the store to juggle the demands of multiple people just to keep the store afloat. Our store was forced to turn into a drive-thru-only location so that the remaining partners could hope to keep up with the high demands of the still-attending customers.
Too much instability
This began the pattern of instability as we would often lose shifts, unsure of whether we would still be compensated if we weren't able to do our jobs for reasons outside of our control. Partners began to feel the stress weigh on them, both financially and mentally.
“I learned to speed-cry when I go to the back of the store,” barista Alex Wells told me. “I sob for maybe 15 seconds, swig down that sweet, sweet triple-filtered water and go back to work and pretend everything is fine.”
Just as this transition seemed to fade and it looked as if the store may fall into a pattern of stability, new corporate policies began to pass, and hours began to be cut, moved and changed, throwing partners into a state of panic as we struggled to figure out how to make ends meet.
“I'm just supposed to make coffee . ... I find myself doing odd jobs to keep my income at a level that will cover me just enough so I can get through one more month,” Wells said. “I've had to ask friends and family for help just so I can get by when I never had to before.”
Partners who relied on hours to stay on health insurance or to remain enrolled in Arizona State University's Starbucks program, which covers full tuition for benefits-eligible partners, suddenly found themselves scrambling to find the hours to stay afloat.
“I was just 11 hours short of the audit,” Chaudhari said. “It was shocking and scary.”
How we began unionizing
Partners, almost all of whom relied on the job to pay bills while supporting themselves through college, could no longer rely on the hours they needed to get by. As fear ran through us on a daily basis, the whisper that had started far to the north in Buffalo spread down south into Texas as partners began saying the word “union” in hushed tones. Before all of this I had only known about unions through books; never, however, had any of those stories mentioned Texas. I had the impression unions were illegal here.
The right-to-work law made it sound that way. While definitely legal, unions still didn't seem to be very welcome. Tension around that whispered word grew as we started to witness union busting tactics in other cities. The National Labor Relations Board has sued Starbucks for allegedly retaliating against three partners who were organizing in Phoenix. Starbucks has responded by claiming that the partners were terminated because “they violated our established policies” and “in some instances, they also violated state law.” But the burnout of our working circumstances ultimately outweighed our fear. Five of us, with nothing to lose, got together to draft an email to Starbucks Workers United, the original Buffalo union, asking for their guidance on unionizing our store.
“I knew that too many people were struggling to not do anything,” barista Carson Lane told me. “It was scary drafting an email to union organizers, and I didn't even know if we would get a response, but it felt like we had to do something.”
Emotionally and physically drained from the circumstances that we'd worked under, I felt both a wave of relief and fear when we heard back from the union organizers. There was excitement that things might take a serious step forward, but also trepidation about the additional stress this could put on everyone.
On March 17, the committee members and I clicked on a Zoom link that would place us face to face with union organizers from Buffalo. Meeting the people who inspired us to make a change, we suddenly felt that our actions had real importance beyond our own immediate futures. A civil rights lawyer attended the call. The committee had, for the time being, kept the meeting between ourselves for “our safety” since the fear of retaliation over even uttering the word “union” was still present. That day we learned we had the right to unionize whether we were in Texas or not — in fact, everyone has the right to unionize and bargain collectively for better working conditions.
I left the meeting with a renewed sense of excitement and inspiration about our ability to help our coworkers. As the tension in our Starbucks store became more and more palpable, I felt my initial wariness replaced with a more steady sense of determination. Unions were created by workers to protect our livelihood, but the word carries the strong weight of taboo, as if it might attach itself around your ankle for your employer to see so that they may drag you away.
“It was an intense period as we talked to our fellow partners in the store informing them about what a union was,” Lane said. “It was hard to convince people that you would be safe signing a union card. They were worried that if they were found out, they'd be fired immediately.”
However, as more and more cards were signed, a sense of solidarity began to build within the store. Partners began believing that real change could come, that the union could bring protection, hours, better pay and everything we needed to survive.
We petitioned for an election with the National Labor Relations Board on April 11, and are now waiting for an election date.
A national movement
A new labor movement is taking root right now, and it's bigger than Starbucks. Former employee Chris Smalls has formed a union for Amazon workers, while Verizon workers in Washington have won their union. Tesla workers have attempted unionization, while many restaurants and coffee shops join the movement as well.
Company owners, CEOs and managers promise a commitment to care for employees' well-being, but they're falling behind on the times. I wake up, open up a shop, help at another one and close my day at Starbucks. I'm working to eat, pay off my debts, my bills, my rent. I work to survive, not live. Workers are tired of the conditions they're forced to live under even after surviving the worst of the pandemic. Unions were created to protect our livelihoods, and throughout history unions have fought for our rights as workers to demand a maximum eight hour work day, safer working conditions and living wages. Holidays such as May Day, or Labor Day, allow an annual celebration of workers and their achievements throughout history. So why must there be such retaliation when we fight for a union today? A union can strengthen Starbucks to live up to its values, and truly form a partnership. Workers would love to be sustained in the same way we hold up the company through our hard work, and appreciation for our fellow partners.
I'm excited to be a part of a movement that knows that workers run the world.