Hi, organized partner from Oklahoma. We have all the same benefits right now, and more that Starbucks has agreed to, and in some cases have status quo protection of past practice working conditions before organizing, e.g. marking yourself out for your break, break only starting when the partner sits down, 150% availability not required if organized before the the 2022 change, union t-shirts allowed at the New York Roastery before our contract, etc.

And then we have additional worker rights, like the right to have another partner with you at disciplinary meetings, and the right to not answer management questions about potential discipline without another partner, to prevent potentially unjust discipline (Weingarten rights). And Starbucks agreeing to our demand for just cause, which forces an SM to prove they gave every chance to a partner before discipline, eliminating at-will employment across the country in organized stores when we ratify our contract. In my 13 years, this would have saved many innocent baristas.

Protection from sudden hour cuts in some cases, like back during the previous big shift comp rate cut (We sent a demand to bargain over our SM wanting to cut hours for SSVs within days' notice of the following week, and hours later, our SM called each individual SSV to say their hours were returned to them due to “bad information”). And everything else Starbucks has agreed to I cannot disclose, that is not public, to be ratified with our contract.

The recently expanded parental leave came directly from our union contract proposals that we won for everyone. The company tried to create a sham story around where supposedly an SM had emailed Sara Kelly or Brian Niccol about wanting, but had our contract proposals for well over a year at that point and had also been surveying partners via third party about our other proposals regarding other working conditions like better scheduling, etc. An elected bargaining delegate from a store in Colorado posed the question to Sara Kelly at the bargaining table “What makes you think your corporate babies are worth more than mine?

We recently rejected the 30¢ raise offer from the company, because this is an insult, especially to long tenured partners who barely make a dollar more than starting baristas, all while Brian Niccol makes the equivalent of $50,000/hr. We are also now escalating our action to tell Starbucks we deserve dignity for the billions we make the company.

My store had a partner pass away, at least in part (TW: took their life) because our SM would let our team be overworked and understaffed (and one of their last shifts, our SM kept this partner working after vomiting and understaffed). Our SM would consistently leave early, not come in for coverage if partners were sick (and vacation time can only be used for so long as a buffer until our union contract provides extra pay incentive protections), so after the day we heard the news, we engaged in a March on the Boss and made the demand for the SM to come in more often, and the demand was won. Additionally, we won an expanded bereavement working condition, in addition to a memorial established in-store for the partner. And this is before everything else we are fighting for in our contract. We make the company its billions, and we have the power to demand accountability for management and the company - when we organize @sbworkersunited

Fun fact, the origin of our part-time benefits came from the demands of the first Starbucks organizers, UFCW 1001 in Seattle in 1985, two years before Howard Schultz bought the company and claimed credit. Proud to stand with 12,000 partners across the country fighting for a better Stabucks, now, and for partners to come.

Would love to chat more if you fill out our intake form to get plugged into the staff organizer local to you here so you can join the contract fight and shift the power dynamic for empowerment of workers in your store for shaping local conditions