Trans workers have always been part of the labor movement and have always been fighting for broader social change. Christi Sessa, a barista and SBWU organizer from Pittsburgh, shares that story and how it fits in the broader history of the labor movement. 🧵/ "My name is Christi Sessa (they/he). I have worked at Starbucks for nearly four years. I got the job at Starbucks for the same reasons that many trans and queer people do: their advertised health insurance and benefits."

In a truly shocking and evil move, Starbucks fired Logan Matthews today, a Southern union leader hired by former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz 26 YEARS AGO. Logan Matthews was originally hired at Starbucks in 1997 during a hiring event hosted by former Starbucks CEO @HowardSchultz. During this event, Logan personally met and spoke with Schultz.

In a VICTORY for workers, a judge found that Starbucks broke U.S. labor law dozens of times as part of their union-busting campaign in Pittsburgh. To celebrate, here are some of our favorite quotes from Judge Ringler’s 50-page ruling on Starbucks’ “vivid” response to our union... On pg 6, Judge Ringler notes this about a store manager’s testimony, “Hirakawa’s general denial has not been credited; she was a less than credible witness, who seemed more committed to advocating Starbucks’ position than offering accurate testimony.”

BREAKING: In the middle of Pride Month, Starbucks BANS Pride decorations in stores across the United States. For the last two weeks, Starbucks workers have taken to social media to report that the company is no longer allowing Pride decorations in-store. This seems to be the first year the publicly "pro-LGBTQ+" company has taken this kind of stance.

BREAKING: Workers at over 100+
Starbucks stores across the country are striking to demand an end to Starbucks' illegal union-busting campaign. While the company keeps a metaphorical 'empty chair' for us in the boardroom, we're demanding a real seat at the table! #StarbucksStrike Join us on the picket line here! #starbucksStrike

🚨🚨🚨 IN A HISTORIC DECISION Administrative Law Judge Michael A. Rosas of the National Labor Relations Board issued his 204 page decision, finding Starbucks violated federal labor law HUNDREDS of times in Buffalo, NY alone. washingtonpost.com/business/2023/… The decision comes after nearly a year-long investigation, dozens of charges, hundreds of allegations, and months of trial, making this one of the biggest union-busting cases in the history of the National Labor Relations Board.

We can't thank these courageous Support Partners from Starbucks HQ enough for speaking out, calling on executives to reverse the Return to Office mandate and to respect the right to organize and sign the Fair Election Principles. #tobeapartner 🧵 "We are all one Starbucks; we are all partners. We believe in Starbucks, we believe in its core values, and we call for a return to those values. When all partners are included, as trusted partners with a voice, we know that Starbucks can truly be a different kind of company."

🚨 🚨 🚨UNION WINS THREAD ALERT: Less than a year ago, there were ZERO unionized Starbucks stores in the US. Today, there are 258! Let’s take a look at some of the incredible things workers have fought for and WON over the past year… One of our first public demands was fighting for seniority pay for baristas. How did Starbucks respond? By implementing the first seniority pay in the company’s 50 year history.

Today's partner spotlight features James Schenk, a fired worker who successfully organized the first store in the Capital District of NY, the Latham Plaza store, and has gone on to help 9 out of 9 stores win their union in his region! #undefeated 🧵 James says, "Starbucks tells us when we get hired that we are there to create a third place, a welcoming and inclusive environment. How much better can the customer experience get than a Starbucks full of baristas that are excited to come into work and serve our customers?!"

Alyssa is a supervisor and union leader in Raleigh.

Today, she was fired explicitly for leading a walkout, a LEGALLY PROTECTED activity.

gofundme.com/f/starbucks-fi… In five years with the company, Alyssa’s won “partner of the quarter” three times. Her community board artwork is regularly praised by corporate; some is still up in the store today!

She’s a model employee, but Starbucks is blinded by its anti-union hatred.

BARGAINING THREAD 🚨 🧵: Over 250 Starbucks stores have won their union election, and only 3 have had their first bargaining sessions. Why? Starbucks delay tactics. This thread will explain where we’re at and how we got here. Starbucks workers have been filing for union elections – and winning – since Dec, 2021. After workers win a union election, companies are legally required to come to the bargaining table and negotiate a contract with workers.

Starbucks workers are organizing across the country and we have no intention of slowing down. Now that we’ve reached 100 union Starbucks stores nation-wide, we thought we’d do a thread explaining how this happened, the union-busting we’ve faced, and what comes next. 🧵 In Aug of 2021, 50 baristas across Buffalo, NY decided we wanted to unionize for a voice on the job & better working conditions. After working through a pandemic, seeing our wages stagnate while corporate profits soared, and feeling overworked & undervalued, we began organizing.

BIG NEWS 🧵 The Labor Board just issued a Complaint requesting a bargaining order for the Camp Rd. store in Buffalo. This only happens when companies violate the law so egregiously that it’s essentially impossible to have a fair vote at the store for a long-term period. Because of Starbucks’ widespread violations of the law, the NLRB is requesting that Starbucks be ordered to recognize & bargain with our union, just as the company must do at every other store in the Buffalo area where we've voted to unionize.

BREAKING: Labor Board issues MASSIVE complaint against Starbucks charging illegal union-busting. The charges include behavior such as retaliatory terminations, shuttering of pro-union stores, unlawful threats, and oppressive surveillance and intimidation tactics.

Today is our first day of bargaining at Elmwood and Genesee in Buffalo! And ballots go out for our next three Buffalo stores: Walden & Anderson, Depew, and Sheridan & Bailey. Standing in solidarity on this historic day, stores around the country are going public👇 To kick things off, our three Ithaca stores who went public last Tuesday are all filing for elections!

https://twitter.com/sbworkersunited/status/1486056293219676166

Starbucks posted their newest anti-union email in the Boston stores that recently filed for union elections. Here's the response from our Boston organizing committee: "On Thursday, December 16th, Starbucks Partners at 1304 Commonwealth Avenue and 277 Harvard Street received an email from our Regional Director regarding our upcoming union elections. We would like to briefly address its content."

Starbucks has taken their union busting campaign to a new level for the next 3 Buffalo stores preparing for a union election. They changed their strategy from playing the ‘nice guy’ to waging psychological warfare on partners. Here’s what’s going on at the Depew location: Starbucks is purposefully scheduling pro-union partners at inconsistent hours. They are often scheduled both open & close shifts in the same week. This type of scheduling disrupts our ability to have a regular sleep schedule and hurts our mental health.

Union-Busting for Dummies: How Starbucks corporate is trying to break our majorities, a thread about our Walden & Anderson location: We launched our union campaign on Aug 23rd. Walden partners emerged as leaders and signed up a majority at our store. Suddenly, changes started to happen—management changed store hours, brought in a support manager, and finally got rid of bees that were stinging us all summer.