Three Californians who can’t drink dairy say they pay extra fees for alternatives at coffee chain and claim violation of civil rights law
Is charging extra for non-dairy milk an act of discrimination against people who are lactose intolerant?
This is the question three Starbucks customers are raising by filing a $5m class-action lawsuit against Starbucks for making customers who do not consume dairy pay more for their lattes and Frappuccinos.
Continue reading...Trader Joe’s and SpaceX are among businesses challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board
Upset by the surge in union drives, several of the best-known corporations in the US are seeking to cripple the country’s top labor watchdog, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), by having it declared unconstitutional. Some labor experts warn that if those efforts succeed, US labor relations might return to “the law of the jungle”.
In recent weeks, Elon Musk’s SpaceX as well as Amazon, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s have filed legal papers that advance novel arguments aimed at hobbling and perhaps shutting down the NLRB – the federal agency that enforces labor rights and oversees unionization efforts. Those companies are eager to thwart the NLRB after it accused Amazon, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s of breaking the law in battling against unionization and accused SpaceX of illegally firing eight workers for criticizing Musk.
Continue reading...Number rose by almost 60% in a year to 49,691 stores, making China ‘a global coffee industry powerhouse’
The branded coffee chain craze may trace its roots to a single Starbucks in Seattle’s Pike Place market in 1971, but now China has toppled the US as the country with the most branded coffee shops.
The number of branded coffee shops in China increased by 58% over the past 12 months to a record 49,691 outlets, according to research by World Coffee Portal. That was more than 9,000 in excess of the 40,062 in the US, where the market grew by just 4%. The US had held the crown as the world’s biggest coffee shop market for the entire 20-year history of the research.
Continue reading...Boycott would aim to use consumer power to pressure company to negotiate its first union contract
Calls for a consumer boycott of Starbucks are growing amid mounting criticism of the coffee chain’s aggressive union-busting activities.
A boycott, supporters say, would aim to use consumer power to pressure Starbucks to stop its union-busting and illegal actions and to finally negotiate its first union contract.
Continue reading...The National Labor Relations Board has reinstated 28 of the more than 200 pro-union workers fired since late 2021
Alicia Flores had worked at Starbucks in Portland, Oregon, for seven years until June, when she received a voicemail from a manager – filling in for her usual boss, who was taking a leave of absence – who informed her she was being fired.
Flores is far from alone.
Continue reading...Judge writes: ‘Fear of retaliation will exist unless Memphis seven, apparently terminated for their union support, are reinstated’
A US appeals court on Tuesday rejected Starbucks Corp’s challenge to a ruling requiring the coffee chain to rehire seven employees at a Memphis, Tennessee, store who were allegedly fired for supporting a union.
The decision by the Ohio-based sixth US circuit court of appeals is the first from an appeals court involving a nationwide campaign that has seen workers at more than 300 Starbucks locations vote to unionize.
Continue reading...Which? finds some Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Caffè Nero coffees contain more sugar than recommended daily allowance
An iced coffee is a cool pick-me-up on a hot day, but it might not be the caffeine boosting your mood as many of the blends sold by well-known high street coffee chains contain more sugar than a Mars bar or can of Coke.
The consumer group Which? looked at the sugar load in frappés and Frappuccinos being served up this summer by three of the biggest coffee chains, Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Caffè Nero, and found many “regular” size drinks contained more than an adult’s recommended daily allowance.
Continue reading...Howard Schultz defends company’s practices before Senate committee, while Republicans condemn Sanders’ ‘witch-hunt’
Starbucks’ former chief executive Howard Schultz was accused at a Senate hearing on Wednesday of running “the most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in the modern history of our country”.
The hearing, “No Company is Above the Law: The Need to End Illegal Union Busting at Starbucks,” was chaired by Senator Bernie Sanders, a longtime critic of Starbucks’ anti-union activities.
Continue reading...Bernie Sanders had threatened to subpoena Howard Schultz if he refused to appear while workers file unfair labor practice charges
The Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, has agreed to testify before a Senate committee investigating the company’s intense opposition to national efforts to unionize its stores.
Senator Bernie Sanders had threatened to subpoena Schultz if he refused to appear before the US Senate health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee. Sanders said Schultz had “refused to answer any of the serious questions we have asked” for over a year.
Continue reading...Bernie Sanders moves to summon chief executive Howard Schultz to Senate committee to explain repeated anti-union violations
Starbucks is under fire over the company’s response to unionization efforts as senator Bernie Sanders threatens to call its chief executive before his committee on alleged labor violations and staff petition for it to end “intimidation” of organizers.
Sanders, chairman of the Senate health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee, announced on Wednesday that the committee will be voting on whether to issue a subpoena to compel the Starbucks chief, Howard Schultz, to testify about Starbuck’s federal labor law violations, and to authorize a committee investigation into labor-law violations committed by major corporations.
Continue reading...Frappuccino not sold in stores but distributed in supermarkets by PepsiCo recalled after glass detected in 13.7oz bottles
American food and beverage regulators have recalled hundreds of thousands of Starbucks Vanilla Frappuccinos after their distributor warned the drinks could have glass in them.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said 25,200 cases of the caffeinated drink, carrying 12 bottles per case, were recalled starting 28 January after glass was detected inside the 13.7oz bottles. That means officials requested more than 300,000 bottles to be returned.
Continue reading...More than 1,000 baristas at 100 stores are planning to walk out to show support for unionizing, an effort that Starbucks opposes
Starbucks workers around the US are planning a three-day strike starting Friday as part of their effort to unionize the coffee chain’s stores.
More than 1,000 baristas at 100 stores are planning to walk out, according to Starbucks Workers United, the labor group organizing the effort. The strike will be the longest in the year-old unionization campaign.
Continue reading...GOP courts blue collar voters but most favor anti-union ‘right to work’ laws and reject laws that would protect right to organize
After years of struggle, America’s labor unions enjoy greater public approval than at any time in more than 50 years. Yet even as the Republican party seeks to rebrand itself as the party of the working class, its lawmakers, by and large, remain as hostile as ever toward organized labor. It doesn’t look like that situation is about to change.
With the midterm elections approaching, and many polls indicating that the Republicans will win control of the House, nearly all Republican lawmakers in Congress oppose proposals that would make it easier to unionize. One hundred and eleven Republican House members and 21 senators are co-sponsoring a bill that would weaken unions by letting workers in all 50 states opt out of paying any fees to the unions that represent them. And at a time when many young workers – among them, Starbucks workers, Apple store workers, museum workers, grad students – are flocking into unions, Republican lawmakers often deride unions as woke, leftwing and obsolete.
Continue reading...The coffee giant will be required to reinstate Hannah Whitbeck’s job and to hold a meeting reasserting that the company broke the law
Starbucks illegally fired an employee at one of the coffee giant’s shops in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for engaging in union activism, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Friday.
The decision requires Starbucks to offer the worker reinstatement with back pay and to hold a meeting with employees, management, government representatives and the union to clarify workers’ rights and reassert the board’s finding that the company broke the law.
Continue reading...After successful unionization drives, experts say companies will ‘fight to the end’ to prevent the next step
Over the past year, workers at Starbucks, Amazon, Trader Joe’s and Apple have all achieved historic, hard-won union victories, but now many of these newly unionized workers fear they might face an even bigger challenge: negotiating a first union contract.
Exhibit A for that challenge is the slow pace of progress at Starbucks. Unions have won elections at more than 220 stores. Many baristas are upset that Starbucks has begun negotiations with workers at only three of them.
Continue reading...Timati and co-owner Anton Pinskiy have rebranded it as Stars Coffee after buying the rights to the chain
A pro-Putin rapper has reopened the chain of coffee shops formerly owned by Starbucks under a new name, Stars Coffee, the latest high-profile rebranding of a major western chain after an unprecedented corporate exodus from Russia.
On Thursday, the rapper Timati and restaurateur Anton Pinskiy, the duo that acquired the rights to the chain in Russia, attended the opening of the first of the 130 cafes previously owned by Starbucks. During the opening in central Moscow, the pair also revealed the chain’s new logo, which replaces Starbucks’s iconic siren with a woman wearing the traditional Russian kokoshnik headdress, but is otherwise fairly similar.
Continue reading...Workers allege over 75 people have been fired in retaliation for organizing this year
Workers at Starbucks have held over 55 different strikes in at least 17 states in the US in recent months over the company’s aggressive opposition to a wave of unionization.
According to an estimate by Starbucks Workers United, the strikes have cost Starbucks over $375,000 in lost revenue. The union created a $1m strike fund in June 2022 to support Starbucks workers through their strikes and several relief funds have been established for strikes and to support workers who have lost their jobs.
Continue reading...Nine Colorado employees claim their dismissals came after an organizing campaign in response to safety concerns and pay problems
Nine Starbucks workers at three stores in Denver, Colorado, who were fired shortly after their stores voted to unionize allege they were dismissed in retaliation for union organizing at the American coffee chain giant.
The firings are among a few dozen cases around the US where workers have alleged they have been fired from the coffee retail chain during a union organizing campaign at their store. More than 180 Starbucks corporate retail stores in the US have voted to unionize, and more than 300 have filed for union elections.
Continue reading...About 1,500 eligible workers at LDJ5 sorting center on Staten Island vote in union ballot, after recent success at JFK8 warehouse
Amazon workers in New York will go to the polls again as labor activists push to unionize a second facility in the US following their surprise recent victory over the tech giant.
About 1,500 eligible workers at an LDJ5 Amazon sorting center in Staten Island, New York, begin voting in a union election on Monday, in a process that will continue through 29 April. Ballot-counting starts on 2 May.
Continue reading...The company has vigorously opposed unions in the past and says its ‘partners’ in Buffalo don’t need one now
Fifty Starbucks workers in New York are trying to form a union, which would be the first in the US for the coffee chain if successful.
Last week, the group of workers in the Buffalo area publicly announced their union organizing drive and the formation of their organizing committee, Starbucks Workers United, in a letter to the Starbucks CEO, Kevin Johnson.
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