Workers strike at unionized Atlanta Starbucks; store closes for the day

Baristas at a Howell Mill Road Starbucks made their way to their coffee shop on Sunday not to work, but to picket.

Over the course of a one-day strike, workers stood outside the store, turning would-be customers away and waving signs that read “People over profits,” “Seize the beans” and “Today’s featured drink: strikeaccino.”

Workers explained they were protesting their working conditions, and what they described as a refusal from management to meaningfully engage with their recently formed union, the first at an Atlanta-area Starbucks.

“There’s a bittersweet aspect” to the walkout, said Page Smith, one of the labor organizers at the Howell Mill Road location. “Because while I’m proud of us for being so strong and coming out and striking and closing the store down for the day, it’s still sad that we are at this point.”

In an emailed statement, a Starbucks spokesperson reiterated the company’s anti-union stance, but said it intends to collaborate “in good faith” with the unions that do form in its stores.

“We are listening and learning from the partners in these stores as we always do across the country. From the beginning, we’ve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed,” the spokesperson said.

The Howell Mill Road baristas unionized earlier this year, citing a need for better pay and more reliable hours. On Sunday, workers said conditions haven’t improved since they formed the union, but have gotten worse, with schedules becoming more unpredictable and management seeming reluctant to initiate the process of negotiating a contract.

“If we’re not being allowed to bargain, we are going to strike,” Smith said.

Complaints about conditions and requests to initiate bargaining are “falling on deaf ears,” according to Snow Rindfleisch, a Starbucks barista. “And if they are not going to hear us when we say it to their faces, we’re going to have to tell it to their pockets.”

In its statement Sunday, Starbucks said, “We’ve also been clear that we respect our partners’ legal right to organize and will bargain in good faith with the stores that vote to be represented by the union.”

While a reporter was on the scene, at least one customer reacted to the news of the store being closed with an audible obscenity. But others appeared supportive, wishing the strikers luck and honking as they drove past.

Credit: Jenni Girtman

Credit: Jenni Girtman

“We all know that we are not going to be millionaires working for Starbucks. What we’re asking for is basic human needs being met,” said employee Courtney Cook, who first started working for the chain in 2015. “Some of us can’t even pay our rent. Some of us can’t afford health care. … Like, this is literally our livelihood.”

The unionizing and striking at the Howell Mill Road Starbucks is part of a budding surge of labor organizing in Georgia, a state with historically low rates of union representation.

The baristas gathered Sunday — who were joined by members of the Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America, a labor-oriented political organization — said they hope others follow their example.

“It feels good to know that it’s showing other people that they have the power to do the same thing. Like, if this gives another Starbucks or any other business the sense that ‘OK, they did it, we can do it too,’ that would make it all worth it, even if we got nothing else out of this,” Rindfleisch said.

Credit: Jenni Girtman

Cook added that the Howell Mill Road union is open to additional strikes in the future. She also explained why jugs of Dunkin’ coffee were prominently displayed in front of the shut down Starbucks.

“I want (Starbucks) to know that you are replaceable. They feel like we’re replaceable. So are you. So what we’re going to do is we want to bring your competition right in front of your store,” she said.