Starbucks worker on unionization effort: We’re asking to have a ‘seat at the table’

Michelle Eisen, Starbucks Workers United Organization memeber, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the unionization efforts of Starbucks workers in Buffalo, New York.

Video transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Welcome back. A unionization effort led by Starbucks employees in three stores in Buffalo, New York is now becoming a citywide issue. Joining us today is Michelle Eisen. She has been a barista at Starbucks for 11 years. We're also joined by Yahoo Finance's Dani Romero.

And Michelle, I should mention, is joining us by phone. Michelle, thanks so much for making time for us. Just talk to us about this push to unionize and how your 11 years at Starbucks maybe has evolved or changed over the years to get you to this point.

MICHELLE EISEN: Absolutely. Thank you for having me. I actually just walked off the floor from a seven-hour shift, so thank you for letting me come to you by phone. I have been with the company for 11 years. I've been a very proud member of the Starbucks team. I really respect what the company stands for and the right side of the fight that they're usually on.

Unfortunately, the last couple of years, probably made a little bit worse or heightened by the pandemic, has put a lot of myself and my fellow partners in a position to where we think that our working conditions have suffered. And we think that Starbucks can do better. We know that they want to do better. They are a company who says that they put their partners first. And that's what we're asking them to do now.

DANI ROMERO: And, Michelle, you know, you sent us a photo of Rossann Williams, the Vice President of Starbucks of North America, and she's sweeping the floors, which is really astonishing to see a top executive do that. But talk to us about some of these recent visits from these executives. And how would you characterize them?

MICHELLE EISEN: Absolutely. I have been fortunate, or unfortunate, I'm not sure, not to have been present at my store during any of these visits. They just seem to miss me. These are executives that we have never in the 11 years I've been with the company have I ever even seen them step foot into our market.

So all of a sudden a few days after we announced our union campaign, all of these people who I'd never seen were coming into town telling us that they were coming here for reasons other than the fact that we announced a union campaign. They are holding mandatory meetings that we are being asked to come to.

The first round-- these meetings, I should say, are happening weekly. They were initially only happening at three stores that had filed union petitions. But in a recent letter that went out from our regional vice president, it seems like they are going to start holding these meetings at all of our area Buffalo stores. The first one was very-- we're sorry, what can we do, please let us come in and help you.

I've been told that this next round of meetings-- I have not attended my second meeting yet-- is much more vocally anti-union. I mean, they have said out loud, we want you to vote, no, to this union. So it seems to me they're going to get more and more intense.

They're coming in-- they've taken over-- these high execs have taken over hiring of new partners from the store managers. I think the assumption is that they want to make sure that the next round of partners that comes in knows that they should be anti-union. So they've taken that off of-- out of the hands of the actual managers of these stores. It's been a very interesting experience.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Michelle, maybe we should just map out, because we haven't done it yet, what exactly are you and your fellow colleagues there at Starbucks asking for?

MICHELLE EISEN: Well, I think the biggest thing we're asking for is just to have a seat at the table. I mean, we have to enact and carry out all of these policies and protocols that come down from up above, and we never have a say in these policies or protocols. We are the ones who are solely responsible for making sure that things happen within our stores, that things happen within our communities, and we have absolutely no say at this point in what those are.

So that's the first thing-- first and foremost. There's certainly a laundry list, and I think a lot of those can be store specific, which is exactly why we're trying to unionize individual stores as opposed to market-wide at this point. There's issues with pay raises, there's issues-- you know, I'm a tenured partner, I've been with the company 11 years-- at this point, someone who's hired tomorrow will make $0.16 less an hour than I make currently after being there for 11 years. That's a huge issue right now.

I mean, we're dealing with facilities issues. We're dealing with supply chain issues. We're dealing with a lot of issues that we're being told couldn't be fixed, couldn't be handled until we announce a union campaign. And now all of a sudden, there's a fleet of facilities-- people being brought into every store and things that were broken for six months to a year are all of a sudden being fixed like it could have happened any time.

So we're just very confused as to why it took the announcement of a union campaign to all of a sudden have these issues addressed. It seems like they probably could have been addressed immediately all along.

DANI ROMERO: And, Michelle, one last note-- you know, Starbucks now wants all of its employees across the 20 stores in the Buffalo area to vote on the union effort. What is your response to that? And are any of these tactics that they're using swaying your decision from unionizing?

MICHELLE EISEN: None of them are swaying my decision. I do fear that there are younger people who have not been with the company for as long who would absolutely be scared into thinking that there is some sort of retaliation going on. Right now, their big talking points are telling partners that they cannot pick up shifts at other stores. If the store happens to be unionized or if you happen to be at a unionized store, they're telling the workers that the managers are no longer allowed to come onto the floor to help if it's busy.

They're even addressing whether or not we would be able to still be tipped. I mean, there's a lot of issues being discussed, all of which are flat out lies. We know that. Anyone who knows anything about unions, or labor laws, or any other stores that have been unionized knows that those are completely untrue.

So I do think that they're deliberately spreading misinformation in order to scare some of these partners who may be on the fence. What we're doing on the end of the union, those of us who are very pro and very strong, are just trying to alleviate these fears. We do have a hearing scheduled next week where they will argue that we should all-- we should vote as a market as opposed to individual stores.

We already know that the NLRB has dealt with this issue in the past. It's already been established-- there's a precedent that says individual stores can unionize on their own. So I think we're very, very confident that the court will side in our favor when it comes to that. But it's just-- it's another delay tactic.

It's just to further delay this vote in order to hopefully sway enough people so that we are unable to form this union. I don't think they fully realize the level of support, but I think that they will very soon.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Yeah. Michelle Eisen, a barista there at Starbucks attempting to unionize with her fellow workers in the state of Buffalo, thanks for joining us. And thanks for sharing your story. We're going to continue to watch as it unfolds-- also want to thank Yahoo Finance's Dani Romero for joining us.