When Starbucks workers invited friends over for some coffee and some good trouble Tuesday morning, plenty of Pittsburghers were happy to join them, including several striking Pittsburgh news workers.
The region’s Starbucks workers have been great supporters of that strike, showing up at rallies and at picket lines at all hours of the day and night. So several striking Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh workers were delighted to show their solidarity.
They joined a number of others at the Bloomfield Starbucks, Pittsburgh’s first unionized Starbucks store, for an action that turned into a strike — and an act of civil disobedience. After the baristas on duty marched out of the store on strike, and after a short rally on the sidewalk outside, five members of the baristas’ union, Starbucks Workers United, engaged in a sit-in at the store. Police were summoned.
Supporters standing on the sidewalk outside held signs reading “Starbucks Contract Now” and chanted, “When we fight, we win!” as police escorted the five workers, their hands bound behind their backs, out of the store. Those arrested included Michelle Eisen from the first Starbucks store to unionize in Buffalo, New York; Tori Tambellini, an SWU organizer and Pittsburgh Starbucks worker who was reinstated in 2023 after the National Labor Relations Board ruled she’d been illegally fired from her job at the Market Square store; and a faith leader.
Similar actions took place at Starbucks stores in New York; Easton, Pennsylvania; St. Louis; Chicago; and Seattle — union baristas walked out on unfair labor practice strikes while fellow baristas and allies staged some 100 informational “sip-ins” in cafes across the country.
All this happened on the eve of the annual shareholders meeting of the international coffee giant, which, Starbucks United reports, has been paying its new CEO $800,000 a day while not bargaining contracts for its workers.
The workers, in an escalating national campaign, are demanding that Starbucks resolve hundreds of unfair labor practice charges and finalize fair contracts.
“Our CEO has made $96 million in four months while not all of us make enough to pay our bills,” Paige Meriwether, a 3½-year veteran barista at the coffee chain’s Bethel Park location, said in a news release. “Starbucks cannot function without its baristas. We are the face of the company. If Starbucks does not have us, the company does not run. We are working hard and working multiple positions, but not even getting paid enough to be working one. It is time for Starbucks to make a contract. If you are not going to do that, then there is no coffee!”
Update:
In a statement emailed to the Pittsburgh Union Progress on March 12, Starbucks spokesman Phil Gee said, “It’s disappointing to see Workers United disrupt our stores and undermine the ongoing mediation process for single store contracts. Since last April, Starbucks and Workers United have made significant progress through respectful dialogue and have reached a number of important agreements. Our success starts and ends with our partners (employees) and we’re committed to providing the best job in retail.”
Bob, a feature writer and editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is currently on strike and serving as interim editor of the Pittsburgh Union Progress. Contact him at bbatz@unionprogress.com.
