Starbucks workers will gather, including locally, over alleged union-busting efforts

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Starbucks workers will gather at cafes across the country, including the Greece Ridge Starbucks location, to speak with customers about the company’s alleged union-busting efforts.

Starbucks Workers United, the union that represents workers across at least 40 states, says they’re demanding that Starbucks respects workers right to join a union. They’re calling the company “the worst offender of labor law in modern U.S. history.”

Union supporters will meet outside the Greece Ridge Starbucks on Monday, Oct. 30 with signs and petitions for customers or people who walk by. It runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. You can learn more here.

In addition, union supporters are handing out leaflets, condemning what they call illegal union-busting tactics, at more than 25 cafes in Upstate New York. Locally, those locations include Blossom Road, Chili Avenue, Monroe Avenue, West Ridge Road in Greece, and Empire Boulevard in Webster.

Back in April 2022, two Rochester area Starbucks, the Mt. Hope Avenue and Monroe Avenue in Brighton locations, voted to unionize. Since then, other Starbucks across upstate New York have also unionized after the National Labor Relations Board held votes.

On Wednesday, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced that he’s stepping down from the coffee chain’s board. He has taken a stance against Starbucks Workers United and was grilled in March in front of a Senate committee over the company’s alleged union busting shortly after he stepped down as the CEO.