Baristas nationwide are remarkably organized. Is the company’s C.E.O., Howard Schultz, using firings, store closures, and legal delays to thwart them?
The union push comes as public opinion about organized labor is the most positive in decades. A Gallup poll last year found that 68% of Americans approve of unions, the highest share since 1965.
Workers in Ithaca say closure represents pure opposition from Starbucks, whose CEO says he will "never embrace the union."
The Apple store unionization vote comes against a backdrop of other labor organizing efforts nationwide — some of them rebuffed.
The unions attempting to represent Amazon workers at facilities in Bessemer, Ala., and Staten Island, N.Y., filed separate charges this month claiming federal labor law violations arising from the company convening mandatory anti-union meetings.
Petitions to organize have come faster than even those involved first believed possible, according to Richard Bensinger, union organizer with Starbucks Workers United and a former organizing director of the AFL-CIO.
Workers started the unfair labor practice strike over claims of bad faith bargaining by Warrior Met Coal over a new union contract. The strike has cost the company an estimated $6.9 million.
Since the initial victory in Buffalo, workers at several other Starbucks stores throughout the country have filed for union elections, including in Boston, Chicago, Seattle and Knoxville, Tenn.
Starbucks corporate fought the Buffalo organizing effort. Massachusetts workers are preparing for a similar campaign by Starbucks.
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