Solidarity Sip-In Today

 

Ah, coffee. How I wish that my first cup lasted from the moment I woke up until I clicked “publish” on the blog. Alas, no.

I am trying to limit myself to two cups a day for health reasons. I think I’ll take myself over to the Starbucks in Ellicott City today for that treasured second cup.

Join us for a Solidarity Sip-In!

JUNE 5, 2023

10AM-2PM

9251 BALTIMORE NATIONAL PIKE

ELLICOTT CITY, MARYLAND 21042

Workers at the Route 40 Ellicott City Starbucks are coming together to build their own union to improve their working conditions ONE PERSON, ONE CUP, ONE STORE at a time.

Bring a friend, bring your joy, and join the workers in fighting to inspire and nurture the human spirit.

Employees at the Route 40 Starbucks have voted to unionize, joining a growing trend amongst Starbucks workers nationwide. 

'We are tired of being divided' | Ellicott City Starbucks employees unionizing, Emilie Kyler, WJLA ABC 7 

Two-year partner at the Ellicott City store, Anja Alden believes they can't truly be partners until all employees have a seat at the table.

"We're tired of being divided and pitted against each other. We are coming together to ensure that our interests are represented. The drive for profit above all else has left us and our customers feeling disregarded," Alden said.

I found this piece of information extremely concerning:

The transgender partners in our store have been demoralized by Starbucks' unilateral decision to modify their supplemental transgender health coverage, a decision that left us with fewer options for treatment of our gender dysphoria.

Happy Pride, Starbucks Workers! We’re going to call you “Partners” but we’re going to treat you like wage slaves and you need to suck it up and be happy about it.

I’ve written a number of times about how the affluent have more opportunities for choice in both their personal and professional lives. It was clear to me when the County Council held hearings addressing protections for hospitality workers that some of them did not truly understand what it was like to have one’s financial security constantly at the mercy of management. 

Jobs in hospitality and food service come with a significant likelihood that one’s hours will be cut back, or untenable back-to-back shifts will be doled out repeatedly as a way of controlling and/or punishing staff. During job interviews there may be promises of full-time work that comes with benefits. Once hired, employees find that their schedules always seem to fall just short of full time status, so that the much- needed benefits never materialize.

Lower wage workers will often be forced to accept this and you may find them working multiple jobs just to get by. The cumulative amount of hours may be far more than full time but not one of their employers will be required to provide health care or other employment benefits. This is why I seethed to hear Council Members suggest that employees working fewer hours must not be very serious about their jobs.

Who do you think makes the dang schedules? Not the workers.

A successful business must turn a profit, but not at the expense of workers. Put plainly: if that profit is predicated on wage theft and mistreatment of staff, that’s NOT a successful business. That’s when you see workers come together around shared goals and move to unionize the workplace. 

Stop by the Route 40 Starbucks between 10 and 2 today if you’d like to show solidarity.