A photo of the Pike Place starbucks in Seattle Washington
We, the partners at Pike Place #301, are excited to announce our intent to unionize with Starbucks Workers United. As partners of the first Starbucks, we’ve decided to form a union to uphold the core values of our company and the Pike Place Market: fair and equal treatment, respect, and dignity for every single partner who makes this store so special. Thousands of partners around the country are working together to fight for a better workplace, and we look forward to joining them. Starbucks as a company was built on the core pillars of belonging, courage, and joy. Sadly, under your leadership – in our store and so many others – Starbucks has lost its way and veered from the core values that defined us. Store partners are the most important part of the Starbucks experience. We open the stores every morning and close them every night. We greet customers, make the coffee, clean up the spills, and remember our regulars’ names and favorite orders. But beneath the veneer of the excellent experience we craft for visitors every day, partners do not feel a sense of belonging and joy – unequal treatment is the norm, not the exception. When we speak up, that courage is punished, not rewarded. That has been most evident with Starbucks dispatching two national labor relations personnel to our store to surveil partners after the company heard we were discussing unionization, raising tension in the store that can be felt by both workers and customers. The market's founding gave us clear directions: "It is for you to defend, to protect and to uphold, and it is for you to see that those who occupy it treat you fairly; that no extortion be permitted and that the purpose for which it was created be religiously adhered to." The path to our union may be challenging, but we know this: We are better working together as a team, we have each others’ backs, and we respect everyone’s right to make their own choice. We call on Starbucks to live up to the core values of courage, joy, and be…
Today, the "original" Starbucks at Pike Place Market in Seattle, is announcing they're organizing their union. ✊
Read the letter workers addressed to CEO Brian Niccol about why they're joining thousands of workers nationwide fighting for a better Starbucks:
