- The first Starbucks workers in US history to unionize won the union election in Buffalo, 19-to-8, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after counting the ballots today.
- The campaign to unionize the stores has been a bitter one. The corporation chose to use a variety of union-busting tactics to coax their employees to stay non-union.
- Tactics included “imposing” management brought in to work alongside employees, mandatory union-busting meetings, and “Holocaust” laced talks by former CEO Howard Shultz.
Sahid Fawaz from Labor 411 writes:
“Workers at a Starbucks in Buffalo, NY are officially union.
The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) counted the ballots today, declaring that the a majority of the workers voted yes to join a union.
The campaign to unionize the stores has been a bitter one as the company used a variety of union-busting tactics in a futile effort to persuade the workers to stay non-union.
These tactics included bringing in more management into stores to work alongside workers (a presence that workers called “imposing”), mandatory union-busting meetings for employees, letters to employees asking them to vote no, and in-person talks by former Starbucks CEO, Howard Shultz, which included a bizarre reference to the Holocaust of all things…”
See full story here.
Economic Left 
Leave a Reply