Employees at two Long Island Starbucks locations, along with 20 other stores nationwide, are the latest to file petitions seeking union recognition.
Baristas at the Starbucks Garden City location at 184 Seventh St. and the Starbucks Old Westbury location submitted signed union cards to the National Labor Relations Board Tuesday. The employees aim to be recognized as part of Workers United New York New Jersey Regional Board, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.
“We have worked through violent threats from customers, unsafe weather conditions and a global pandemic. Despite our willingness to work regardless of this disregard for our health and safety, we have been met with higher and higher expectations without being given the resources to meet them,” baristas from 21 Starbucks stores nationwide said in a letter to Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan.
“Across the country management is cutting hours, writing inconsistent and unreliable schedules, and placing more and more work on fewer and fewer partners. Starbucks’ profit driven behavior makes doing our jobs impossible,” the letter continued.
Employees at the Starbucks Garden City location said they were not allowed to comment on the push to unionize, and a manager-in-training at the location said they were told to direct inquiries to the Starbucks website.
Local employees at Starbucks locations in Farmingville, Westbury, Lynbrook, Massapequa and Wantagh have voted to unionize over the past two years.
As of Feb. 14, 391 Starbucks stores have won union elections across 43 states, according to More Perfect Union, a nonprofit.
