“We have a lot of support from a lot of our fellow workers and partners, obviously, but the retaliation has been kind of tough,” said Greyson, 25, a Starbucks employee who was striking in Midtown Thursday. He asked that his last name be withheld out of fear of retaliation.
His shop has yet to unionize but has a vote coming up. He said management has been sending people home for wearing union merchandise, spreading disinformation and threatening to “write people up.” “It’s just been kind of exhausting, but of course we’re all here together, united for a greater cause,” he said.
The one-day action comes almost a year since the first Starbucks coffee shops in the country voted tolast December. Since then more than 250 locations have voted to unionize according to Starbucks Workers United, which now represents more than 7,000 employees across the country. But the newly unionized workers still don’t have their first contract as negotiations with Starbucks have stalled or never started to begin with.