Starbucks doesn’t call their workers as “employees” or staff, rather address them as Partners. This was a practice started by Founder and former CEO Howard Schultz.
However, the same “partners” are now striking work. And that too, during the peak holiday season ahead of Christmas.
Baristas will begin escalating strikes through Christmas eve, beginning in three of the company’s most important markets in the US – Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle, where the company is headquartered.
The baristas are protesting Starbuck’s failure to bring viable economic proposals to the bargaining table and to resolve hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practice charges.
Thousands of Starbucks baristas are going in a 5-day strike starting 21 Dec. until Christmas. These employees are part of the Starbucks Workers United, a worker-led union founded by the employees.
“Working at a drive-through store where there are a maximum of four baristas on the floor at one time, each of us is expected to do the job of multiple people.
And the work multiplies when the holidays bring in a flood of customers, making things far from merry for the skeleton crew often tasked to handle the chaos with a smile on our faces.
It’s no wonder customers—especially younger customers—are turning away from Starbucks, finding other options, and spending their hard-earned money elsewhere.,” said Arloa Fluhr, an employee who wrote about their quest for the website Fast Company.
“Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol’s pay package is worth $57,000 an hour—on top of his salary—a shocking 10,000 times what the median barista makes.
In the same year that Starbucks gave Niccol a $113 million golden greeting, the company had the audacity to tell us—the very baristas who fuel its profits—that there’s no money to invest in our raises”, she added.
Niccol was instated in his new role a couple of months back when the former CEO Laxman Narasimhan was unscrupulously sacked from his role by the board.
The interference of Shultz in the changeover is not doubted, though in his new role, Niccol has taken complete charge and liberty without any interference from Schultz or by the Board as well.
Starbucks cannot turn around their business without the support of its baristas.
These walkouts by the staff members over the company’s failure to offer a serious economic package and unresolved labour practices, is just the beginning.
Will the new CEO look up to their issues to avoid a disastrous festive season sales? the world is watching…
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