It Could Happen Here - Starbucks Union

Episode Date: February 22, 2022

Fundraiser for the victims of the mass shooting attack on the Portland BLM gathering- https://gofund.me/67b0f85b We chat with a Starbucks barista and union organizer in Boston about the Starbucks Unionization efforts. Starbucks Workers United- https://sbworkersunited.org Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadowbride. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of fright. An anthology podcast of modern-day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everybody. Robert Evans here, along with Garrison and Chris. We are preempting the episode that will be airing after this because of events that happened in Portland, Oregon this weekend. On Saturday the 19th, there was a weekly racial justice march. The march, again, it's occurred every week for a couple of years now.

It is ostensibly led by the mother of Patrick Kimmons, who is a Portland, a young black Portland man who was killed by the police a couple of years ago. This is a regular thing as a general rule. You'll see a lot of folks on the right talking about this march is like an Antifa gathering. This almost never gets any coverage whatsoever, because as a general rule, it's just a march where people, you know, protest police violence. It's not something that tends to draw much attention even within Portland. This Saturday, a person who lived in the neighborhood where people were assembling for the march left their home, confronted a group of women

who were acting as corkers. Corking is a job at protests. It's a traffic safety thing. it's people on a mix of usually in bikes motorcycles scooters every now and you see like a one wheel and their job is to kind of route traffic around the march in order to keep people from getting hit by cars um it is a a safety thing um these folks were confronted by this person. Reports on the ground that have been covered in local news from people who were there say that he started out yelling at them, calling them terrorists. And according to one person who was on the scene within about 90 seconds began firing.

He hit and killed one woman and he wounded four others. and he himself was shot by a protester who was nearby uh who was to all everything we know so far legally open carrying a rifle um he is the shooter um is in critical condition in the hospital um one of the people who was doing traffic security that night is dead. I believe at least one is still in the hospital. The others have been released. That's the actual, like, those are the facts of the situation as they're known. The protester who returned fire quickly afterwards turned themselves and their rifle into the police.

You know, the police did the stuff that they do in these instances and then released the person who had responded defensively to the shooting. And that's where we are right now. Portland police have been very cagey in saying anything about this. They have framed it as a clash between a homeowner and protesters. One thing we can say based on where this person came out of, it does not appear that they were a homeowner. It looks like they left a, would have been like a rental thing. Not that that particularly matters, but it's interesting the framing that the police are choosing to use here. And yeah, there's fairly little information as of right now. The name of the shooter has not been released by the police.

Neither has the name of the protester who responded um to the gunfire but uh we do know you know a number of the people who were hit uh we know the person who is deceased there is a go fund me up right now for the people who were injured and the people who were killed in this shooting uh if you go type up stand with portland into go fund me uh you will find the go fund me um it's raised a significant amount of money already but obviously people are going to have huge medical expenses, funeral expenses there's so many people in the hospital

there's a group of two, two of the people who were there were shot 11 times together it's a mess it's just a horrible horrible situation so certainly they could use your support it's to cover funeral expenses medical expenses and then helping with the overall healing process but people are gonna mentally miss work people may want to quit their jobs and stuff in the wake of something like this

because how could you go in and do pretty much anything after this you know yeah um yeah yeah so please please go send them help yeah um send them help avoid kind of spreading anything more specific than that until there's there's evidence there's not yet video of this although one of the people who was there says they have a gopro that was taken by the police that may have something i don't know the extent to which we will get that information. Again, the police have been acting to kind of make this look like a clash rather than what the evidence that like reporters at OPB and the Portland Mercury and even the Times have have found the interviews they've conducted. It seems fair to say that this was a mass shooting that was stopped by a protester as opposed to what i would call a clash yes but that's that it's obvious portland police aren't going to want that narrative to come out very tellingly the mayor of portland ted wheeler issued a statement where he talked about the

shooting as a piece of the city's ongoing gun crime did not mention the woman who was killed did not mention the injured but expressed his sympathy with the police for being so tired. So, you know, that's Portland. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty sick. I mean, you shouldn't like it's not like. It's not like dismissing it by saying it's Portland and saying like this is like, no, there's been growing rhetoric from the city and people the past few years that have basically been encouraging something like this to happen um and now that it has it is also pretty sick looking at different like media framing and police framing talking about it's a homeowner

and how it was like yeah it was like a clash not like an outright attack on people um yeah so it's it's it's bad it's it's pretty gross but what we can do right now is support the people who were there to go fund me for medical expenses and mental health effects in the next bit. Some of the wounded were themselves plugging up the bullet holes of other wounded while they had also been shot because it was a lot of the people doubled as medics or had some sort of medical training um there were medics who were like threatened by police when they arrived on scene for not being willing to stop providing um pressure to a gunshot wound like a bunch of ugly stuff happened there's a mix of ugly stuff and like stuff that seems ugly but it's pretty normal like the ambulance did not move in immediately which obviously people on scene were very angry about that is standard everywhere for like ambulances at active shootings and it's just it i mean it's not pleasant but it's also like they're not ever acting from as much information as the people who were there

maybe have i'm not i'm not gonna blame you know emts or whatnot for following sop in this situation i will blame the police for their responses to stuff like this obviously and the fact that um you know it it's it's unlikely that a satisfying police investigation will be conducted that said it does seem like we already based on the early reporting that exists from again a number of different news uh organizations number of different local journalists that we have a pretty good idea of the basics of what happened. Obviously, more will come out in addition to nothing but respect to the medics who responded. I think it's worth acknowledging that the protester who shot the shooter seems to have have from the evidence we have handled themselves,

uh, as close to perfectly as you can in a defensive shooting. Um, they stopped the threat. Um, they went to the police, they turned in the rifle, they did not. And there's a number of reasons for this, including the fact that like the last time there was a shooting that, uh, was involved, a left-wing demonstrator, that person was hunted down and killed by US marshals. But it also, I think helps when it comes to the legal stuff that's going to wash out on this, the investigation, it really helps that this person dotted their eyes and crossed their T's to make it very clear that this was a very legal self-defense situation.

Obviously, I think a lot of the folks who participate in these things don't particularly care about the law one way or the other, but in terms of how other people see what has happened and what the fallout to this is and maybe the degree to which people properly put some blame on the city for this. I think it is helpful that the person who responded with their rifle to this shooting conducted themselves so carefully. So, I mean, I have a lot of respect for everybody on the ground. A lot of hard decisions had to be made. And it seems like in the worst case scenario situation, the people who were on the ground handled themselves with a tremendous amount of thoughtfulness and courage.

I think that's everything. Yeah, I don't think there's much else to say at this moment right now. Stay safe. Be careful. And again, the GoFundMe, just type GoFundMe stand with Portland into Google. It will take you to the GoFundMe, and you can help folks out there. Hello, welcome to It Could Happen Here. I'm Garrison, and today we're talking about two of my favorite things, which is unions and coffee. Joining me as usual is Chris and Sophie. What do you guys think about coffee and unions and the combination

thereof? Big on unions, like that, like making them, like having them. Not big on coffee. It's too bitter. I can't do it. Unbelievable. Union's great. Coffee, great. Chris, bad. Chris gets the wall.

Oh, no. It's the ultimate canceling. Canceling's gotten more intense. We are coming down on the coffee issue. Don't ever tell Prop that. Don't ever tell Prop you don't like coffee. I worry for you. Don't ever tell prop that.

Don't ever tell prop you don't like coffee. I worry for you. And anyway, to join us to discuss coffee and unions is a union organizer and also someone with a podcast. So that's fun. But Kaylee Shuler. Hello. Hello. Thank you so much for having me.

You know what they say about unionized coffee? It tastes better. It tastes better. Yeah, that is what I have heard. Much better quality. That is true. Maybe that's the problem that Chris has been having. Yeah, none of your coffee is unionized. There are no unions here.

Yeah, see. That's the thing. Chris, jump to conclusions conclusions but you failed you failed to consider the uh the coffee question um anyway we're gonna be uh talking about unions and coffee and starbucks today because there's been a massive wave of starbucks uh location unionizations around the country and i like to start by kind of discussing the origin of this like wave of unionization efforts all across the states. Yeah. So, you know, I'll just say right off the bat, like legalities, logistics, the nitty gritty is still not my forte in all of this. So I might not do the best job explaining it, but I'm going

to do my best. And to get into the origin story of the whole movement, I'm just going to get into my origin story a little bit with this effort. So I started working at Starbucks last year. And not long after, I was approached by my fellow partner, my friend, Tyler DeGuerre. And he's also one of our committee members here. And he was like, hey, did you hear about what just happened in Buffalo? And as you guys probably know, Buffalo was the first to unionize. And so he was really excited about it. I was like, yeah, sounds cool.

Probably not my thing, though. And he was like, no, it is. Like, just let really excited about it. I was like, yeah, sounds cool. Probably not my thing, though. And he was like, no, it is like, just let's talk about it. I was like, all right, fine. And we talked about it. I was like, oh, this makes so much sense. We should definitely do this. They reached out to Workers United because they knew that this was something they needed and wanted. And then when they successfully unionized, I mean, it just sparked so much inspiration across the country. And we hopped on really quick. Other locations in Boston also hopped on not long after. And yeah, it kind of spread like wildfire yeah it's been wonderful to watch the kind of wave of uh of of attempts and in some cases like in a lot of cases um like successful attempts uh just kind of take a you know just go all like it how fast they've

been happening in so many different places around the country. I'd like to talk about why the Starbucks unionization effort is so important. Of course, unions are obviously generally a net good, but why specifically is it important to unionize these starbucks locations like what types of like um issues is the unionization trying to kind of solve and give you know workers better conditions at these at these stores and cafes so this great question and first i want to start by saying saying Starbucks is a great place to work. I say that all the time.

I reap the benefits. There are benefits, good ones. They pay minimum wage or whatever. Like the pay is decent. We have benefits. It's really a lot of people who work at our Starbucks say it's one of the better jobs they've had. And we deserve a union for it's, I mean, really in my brain, it's kind of akin to insurance, right? You have it in case

you need it. If an emergency happens, you don't have to pay the whole ER bill out of pocket. You've got some coverage coming from somewhere, right? That, at least in my mind, is what this union is for. That being said, we also just want to obviously democratize our workplace. We want to have a spot at the bargaining table because we have HR, we have people to go to, but unions are partners looking out for partners and that's it. Starbucks looking out for partners, and that's it. Starbucks looks out for partners and profit. It's a business. It's a huge business.

So this would just give us a stronger sense of empowerment. And again, I really think of it kind of like insurance. It's just us making sure we're taken care of at all times yeah and what what type of kind of i know whenever the discussion of unions kind of starts at work places there's always like an element of like secrecy and you know being worried about you know different types of suppression so what types of kind of things have people been doing when the when the union is like trying to get it's trying to get trying to get off the ground to organize like as p like are people using like signal chats

like what what is what is like in these in this in these stores how is how are we trying to get more people to like be comfortable with this idea and get like get started with the organizing process that's a really good question and we're still doing that work all the time that work doesn't really end especially because um it's commonly known now so i don't feel as scared to say it but there are being there is union busting happening it's happening all the time, and it's scary and it's intimidating and it's meant to be, and it's effective, you know? So, um, we have a majority yes vote in my store. I already know that, but it also takes upkeep. It takes maintenance. Um, it takes checking in with people and, you know, for my money, checking in and saying, Hey, how

are you feeling about this? Are you doing OK? Like, I know that this is scary. I know that you're hearing things like, do you have any questions? It takes us doing our due diligence and researching the things that they're saying. And yeah, I mean, it's it's kind of a constant thing as far as like technically how it's done. I mean, lots of group chats. Just way too many group chats. That has been most of my experience with most political organizing in general

is just way, way too many group chats. Yeah. In terms of what Starbucks is doing to start their union-busting response is this website that they've launched. Yeah. I know you've, I know you've tweeted about this,

uh, about this site. So I would love to love to discuss it. Yeah. I mean, I just went off. I didn't really think much of it. You know,

I just, I saw it on there and just was like, this is lies. Um, I mean, well, for one, I'm trying to remember everything I read and tweeted, but the one that's coming to mind is when they say this may affect your relationship with your store manager and it may make it difficult for, to me, that is, that may depends entirely on how much, um, union busting Starbucks

wants to do. If you want to tell our store managers that this will negatively impact our relationship with them, if that's how you want to frame it, then yeah, it probably will. Um, if you, if you want to make it more difficult by not negotiating the contract easily with us, yeah, then that might happen. That's not a union problem. That's a Starbucks problem that they are framing as a union problem. Yeah, I can't. What were the other things that I commented on? I would just like to also explain what this site is and what it's trying to do. Oh, sure. Yeah, I mean, it's

it's union investing. It's giving partners the facts that they need to know. We want to make sure that you are informed before you vote no um that's what that is yeah it's this like sleekly designed page that has the list of facts about about organizing and all the reasons why it's going

to negatively represent negatively affect your relationship with the Starbucks Corporation. Oh, this was one of the points said, the union may not negotiate for some things you were hoping for and some things you value now might go away. That is so ridiculous. That's a threat. Yeah.

That's a threat. That's a threat that your well-being will be changed. Like we might not negotiate this contract very nicely with you. The union is us. They love to talk about the third party and, oh, your store manager is going to have to work with a steward. The steward is going to be someone who already works in the store. Yes. The steward is us.

The union is us. Why would we negotiate a contract that doesn't benefit us that's so silly it makes no sense it's it's it's it's very typical union busting kind of behavior and if you know if they can just if this type of propaganda you know can just convince a few people and and scare and scare only only a couple of people, that'll be enough to kind of cause division and shut down efforts in the store, right? So that's all that their goal is, is to prevent, you know, at least one more store from not doing it.

That's like, as long as they do that, then it's like successful. Absolutely. You know, based on how many people work at an individual store, that's not like entirely unlikely, right? how many people work at an individual individual store that's not like entirely unlikely right is it'll you know it will like you you union busting efforts do work in a lot of cases and that's why they still do them like that's absolutely absolutely yeah and that's why it's it's really important for um you know if there are any partners listening to this and partners, by the way, is what, you know, we call ourselves at Starbucks. Yes. The, the social aspect of this within your store, the checking in with your partners and seeing how they're feeling about it and having

as many face-to-face conversations as you can have and really, really sticking by each other is really important because, yeah, like I said. Welcome, I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors supernatural creatures. I know you.

Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. These tactics are tried and true. They're effective. They're intimidating. And so you have to really support each other through that and keep reminding each other, like, no, there's a reason we're doing this. This is actually still a good thing, you know? Because on top of our jobs and then a lot of partners are in school or they have families,

like we already have a lot going on. And then we have to go into work and be reminded that our desire for a union is not valuable to Starbucks. And so they're going to make things harder by doing all the things they're doing. You have to really, really be there for each other through this process. Yeah. I mean, that's, you know, solidarity, one of the key tenants of this type of, you know, this type of organizing. Absolutely.

I know Chris is a pretty big union appreciator. I like unions, but Chris really, really, really enjoys a union, so I'm wondering if you have anything uh he likes them so much he'll he'll even like unionized coffee he'll be like this coffee's delicious it will it will it will convert chris absolutely some of the some of the the there's

some stores in chicago that are unionizing and i'm like hmm maybe we should go check them out yeah you should at least at least check them out and say like, hi. It'd be like, yeah, good job, guys. What's a great thing to do? Definitely go to those stores, go up to the counter and order your coffee and then ask them to write like Union Strong or We Love Unions as your name. Because when the baristas are making the coffee and they like see that sticker come through,

it's, we really love that. Chris, they have great tea there too. Ice cream. Well, I drink a lot of tea. It's really good.

Or the chai. Like, listen, that's really helpful information though about like, yeah, we have, I there's finally a store that's like somewhat near los angeles where i am that that has announced that they're unionizing which is exciting like

okay california way to join the party late but you know it's it's cool go ahead yeah yeah one thing i'm interested in is like how how big is the shop like how many people are sort of like well i'm not not just like like just how many people there like could potentially join the union i mean anyone could i think we have about 20 i could be so wrong but i think we have around 20 partners in our store right now. And yeah, any, well, yeah, just about anybody could join. Not anyone who's salaried. Yeah. Okay.

That seems pretty common across all the different stores is around that, or it's around like 20 union eligible people per location seems roughly accurate based on the stuff i've seen from you know seattle to philadelphia to boston to buffalo to you know all all places in between and yeah so part of part of like the actual more organizational structure is a linked to workers united yes part of the part of the service employees international International Union affiliate kind of family of unions who's kind of led the campaign or has been part of the campaign to unionize the thousands of locations through the states. And yeah, I think around like 80 locations, including two of the company's flagship ones inside seattle and new york have have joined this this effort and it does seem like every day there's like more stores popping up who are who are who are saying yeah this is a good idea this is yeah whether it be

to you know be like yeah some of our equipment is old and it's like you know it causes like heat burns because it's not like maintenance properly or being like yeah there's a lot of like sexual harassment caused by like some like some like patrons that never gets addressed by management um and like or you know saying like yeah i maybe deserve to be paid more than 15 an hour um with rent being you know as high it is as high as it is maybe we should be paying over 20 bucks an hour i don't know how everybody else is doing but my rent situation is interesting so i'm definitely rent has been ballooning in recent in recent months even it's been it's been really

going up which i mean i'm sure we'll talk about that at some point on the show here but yeah like there's a lot of there's a lot of issues that are being like, yeah, maybe people should be paid more. People should be at the bargaining table. There's a lot of things to address to make it a safer workplace, to make it a workplace where you're more respected. And it's really nice to see people saying, yeah, I'm not going to put up with this anymore

and we can do something about it. Because there are mechanisms to do this, right? That's why it's happening. So that's very exciting to see this taking place. It really is. And you make a lot of great points and bring up a lot of the benefits of having a union. And it just surprises me how anti-union starbucks is

is period um because it's just it's like i don't know you yeah you paint such a beautiful picture because it is a beautiful picture to have autonomy and um respect and empowerment in the workplace you know they uh they train us to work through the lens of humanity you know by their words and uh it's pretty humane to let people have a say a real say in the workplace you know yeah i think it kind of exposes that type of you know pretty pretty corporate language that's performative yeah exactly I am interested in the other union busting or soft

union busting kind of stuff going on even before this website in terms of how management's been responding and how more what the local responses to when stores start talking about this yeah and and another follow-up to that is i i noticed that covid was mentioned

on this on this website is that being brought up within union busting at all or is that brought i just it was like a huge red flag for me that they used like well we helped you during COVID we were there for you I hope so which really did not sit well with me that's like abusive terminology that is pretty manipulative to be like we helped you during a

pandemic it's like well yes as you should because yeah you're the place where I was employed I give something to you you give something to me and yeah and as i twitter ranted in the comment you know like with peace and love we had to beg to get our cafe closed you know like we we like it wasn't like we just uh cases rose and they came in and said hey Hey guys, we're going to close it. Like we had, we were calling and making a stink. And I mean, we were talking about striking, but then remembered we're not unionized yet.

So we didn't, but yeah, I mean, it was, we, yeah, we were really fed up with people sitting in there for hours with their faces out, you know, as cases were rising so um yeah great point that's really pretty manipulative because like you should be helping us through covid um that's not like a that's not a benefit that's just no that's like yeah it's it's not killing people it's like, yeah, it's, it's not killing people. It's like, should, should be something that's just kind of always there. Shouldn't,

shouldn't be an extra, you know? Yeah. And I mean, as far as, you know, sort of local interference, I guess I'll say,

I do want to say, in my case, our store manager, I really care about her. I have a great working relationship with her. I really respect her. She's done a lot of good for our store. And she's really just doing the best she can, having conversations with us. She has her opinions and feelings about it. And I just try to listen to them and she listens to mine.

But they're definitely, yeah. I mean, as soon as we filed for an election, we started, actually, as soon as we started organizing and they sort of caught wind, we started having barista meetings, which are as vague as they sound. And people who had worked there longer than me said, we've never had these before. Maybe once, you know, in a few years.

So we started having all these meetings and not even talking about the union at first, but all of a sudden they wanted to hear from us and fix things in the store and all this stuff and be super helpful and present. And then there definitely just was a heightened corporate presence in the store. People we'd never seen before coming in like, hey, how you doing?

Want to talk? It's like, no, you're a stranger. I don't want to talk to you. So that was weird. But yeah, yeah, there's definitely just a shift in presence. Again, we have these meetings and yeah, it's been interesting. What do you kind of, how do you see the situation resolving? Like, do you have, and also, what's the state of your stores specifically? Yeah, so we are on our way to an election.

We've requested an election. To an election. We've requested an election. So we're really just like do a zoom hearing for some of the legalities for things here in Massachusetts. Uh, that was interesting, but yeah, so we're, we're just waiting for the election at this point and the election is what will, uh, you know, that's when we're going to cast our yes or no vote. Um, and we will find out whether or not we're gonna unionize and i i think we will unionize it's looking that way i'm confident um and i really look forward to that what do you think um like what do you see is happening after the vote is done like like assuming it is a vote yes like how do you think this will impact um working at the store going forward it's gonna be interesting and it's gonna be an adjustment right because from the time that

we vote and we vote yes let's say we vote yes and we're gonna unionize there is it could take a long time it could take a year we don't know it could take more and time. It could take a year. We don't know. It could take more and less to get from that vote to, you know, what we refer to as the bargaining table, to negotiating a contract with Starbucks. And in that time, there are things, and again, if partners are listening, you can do your research on this, on the NLRB website. Um, there, you know, there are things that will be, um, different in that waiting period. Right.

So if, if Starbucks decides to release, um, a nationwide, um, spring raise, because why not? We love giving you raises. Um, we would be exempt from that because we're in negotiations because we're in this sort of in-between spot. There are little weird things that we might have to just be aware of. No going in in that sort of interim. Yeah.

And then eventually, you know, those raises and any other things that we've sort of been waiting on get brought to the bargaining table yeah i think this is an important thing for people to understand when you're doing union organizing right is you know you have this giant push and you have like you have to have the push to get you to get either recognition or to get this the the national labor relations board vote but most unions that go under go under in like before the first contract and you have to like that's that's something that you know when you talk to people who who are professional union organizers they talk they talk about this constantly which is like you you have to hold it together during during that period between

your first like between when you when you between when you get recognized and when your vote ends, that first contract. And it's hard in a lot of ways, yeah, because things we're talking about, like management will do, you know, they'll intensify the union busting because they're hoping the union will still fall apart. But if you hold it together, and if you get that first contract, your union, you contract, you now have a union and you've basically stabilized. And at that point, you now have a seat at the table and you have to take your seat at the table and fight. Yeah, it's a big responsibility. When you say hold it together during that time, do you mean just through those changes and that interim and that sort of weird awkward phase like you have to like just hold it together like mentally and just kind of power through it yeah well also i mean you you have to like you have to just keep making sure everyone's

involved which is something yes yeah difficult because yeah especially after sort of the initial people lose steam yeah yeah and because people have also have like a job to do yeah this entire time right they're still they're still making coffee they're still making podcasts they're still doing whatever so you still have your work have you ever done this is sort of beside the point but it's fun have you guys ever done like the um 16 personalities personality assessment at some point i've never done it it's really fun i just did it for school and um it it's the thing that tells you like i'm an infj t and my thing is the advocate sophie what's yours you look like you had one ready to go

i don't remember what it was but i remember having to do it like 15 times in school. Yeah. I also, I also forget what I, the one that I did for when I was in school as well. But I, I brought it up because I'm thinking I want to send it to my fellow organizers and be like,

do this. And we can sort of highlight what each other's strengths are and start playing into those. Because like you were saying, Chris, like it really is a team effort. And I think it only really works if you are utilizing people and respecting people's strengths, you know, because not everyone has the same strengths. Like, yeah, you might be a kick-ass graphic designer, but, like, not everyone can do that. You know, maybe they're better at hosting get-togethers or they're better at writing emails or whatever, you know? And I think, yeah, playing to strengths is so important in the long run because, yeah, it can take a year to get to the negotiating table, which, like, is horrible. Like, that shouldn't be.

Like, it shouldn't be that long um and you know tactics such as like specifically you know raising wages around a unionization effort so that people in the union don't get it that is like another form of union busting like that is like like don't think they haven't thought that through like that is that is part of that whole process being like, oh yeah, you could have a union or you could get higher wages now. That is part of what's going on. It's because they want people to not sign on

to have long-term benefits, so they're going to offer these short-term benefits. It really is. Because of how elongated the unionization process can be, it gives a lot of time for people to get burnt out. And combating that, like combating being burnt out is one of the most important parts. And yeah, it's really challenging sometimes. Oh my gosh, absolutely. I mean, I love that conversation. I'm like a mental health dweeb. It's what my podcast is called, Your Mess.

Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you.

Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And that's basically all I talk about is mental health. And yeah, the burnout, I mean, I'm recovering from burnout right now. It's very real. You have to make sure that while you're taking care of everybody else and making these efforts, you have to make sure that, you know, while you're taking care of everybody else and making these efforts, like you have to make sure that you are checking with yourself every day and making sure your needs are being met. Because giving from an empty tank does not last long. Yep. As I'm sure you guys know.

Yeah. Yeah, if the water in your espresso machine is out, then nothing can flow through to make the espresso. Then no Ristretto shots for you, baby. Exactly. See, what an amazingly crafted metaphor I just did. Not tortured at all. Anyway. anyway so what is the like turnover rate at the store like like how how quickly are people coming in and out of of jobs and how has that been affecting that's a cool question. We haven't had a ton of people leave since I got there. I mean, and I definitely, I can pretty confidently say none of those had to do with unionizing. It was all for just like different reasons. We've had quite a few more people come in recently. And I would say that,

I mean, it's, it's weird because our current store manager, who's great, she was hired around the same time that we really started amping up union stuff. And, you know, it's almost unfortunate because I think she thought it was, it was about her and it just so wasn't, you know? Um, but yeah, so it, it, I, who knows if it was just cause she was there now or because of the union stuff or both, but, uh, they did start hiring quite a few more people, um, around the time that we started organizing. And yeah, I mean, it's, you have to walk this fine line when you have new people coming in. Of course you want to get to them and give them your info or at least give them resources to look into before corporate gets to them.

But then you also, they're, they're learning a new job. It's really fast paced and overwhelming. Like you have to be careful not to totally overwhelm them either. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that's really something I've just tried to keep in mind

throughout the whole process is like when my friend Tyler approached me, I was like, I don't know what this is. I don't know if this is necessary for me and now i'm on the committee you know um so i you know what i mean like it's that thing where i'm like okay if i could be convinced maybe anyone can yeah all right well um is there um any uh direct action that people who are listening or any call to action you have for us that we can uh provide to our listeners or links or anything that you think would be useful for our people to know that's a cool idea yeah thanks um like we mentioned

before if you want to just like stop by your local unionizing Starbucks and get a coffee with the name, you know, unionize or union strong that like that in-person support, especially when you're first organizing is really, really helpful. Even just stopping by to like drop off a card or say, Hey, good luck with unionizing. dropping by to like drop off a card or say, Hey, good luck with unionizing. Um, that really means a lot. Um, you can follow, uh, SB workers United on Instagram and Twitter and just engage with us. Um, reach out if you need info about how to organize the people on Instagram are so, I mean, on all the platforms are just like, so on top of responding. Um, and, uh, websites. I think we have a website.

I would, I would assume so. I would assume at this point. Yeah. I mean, we have a pretty pop in Instagram and Twitter, but, um, yeah, I don't, I don't think i'm forgetting anything i think that's that's about it um and just making noise on online is also really helpful you know i love when people comment on starbucks posts and they're like yeah how about unions though yeah what about a little union the website is is sbworkersunited.org. Thank you.

Affiliated with the Workers United and the Starbucks unionizing effort, which has ways to donate or buy merch in support of the union and that kind of stuff, which funds all go to the campaign. And, you know, just in case it wasn't clear, and this is something you'll hear from Starbucks is all of this about the third party and workers United is going to do this and that and blah, blah, blah. We essentially, you know, we work with that. They, they promote our cause. You know what I mean? They're here to support our mission and our goals, I mean, you'd be amazed by how much partners do for this, you know,

so much, but we, we do the nitty gritty every day communicating with each other. We're communicating nationally. Now we have a platform for that. Um, and yeah, it's really cool. And so like, they are, they're kind of like, I don't know, the supporting beams of everything we're doing, you know, it's us. Yeah, but like the actual makeup of it definitely is with Starbucks employees. And all the people I've been in like Twitter conversations with or DMs who are involved, it's like, yeah, like everyone who's like actively involved in doing it all has worked at a Starbucks before and still are. Like it is it is definitely being led by the workers yep um and yeah that's really great and really crucial um do you have any do you have any other uh pluggables either for yourself or for uh yeah

anything else in general plug your pod yeah yeah thanks guys um this was really fun Thank you for having me on I love podcasting So yeah I mentioned SB Workers United on Instagram and Twitter Make sure you give them a follow Follow baristas you find along the way Who are speaking up about this

Show them your support My podcast is called Your Messy Friend you can find me i think wherever you get your podcasts definitely spotify that's what i use um and yeah that's about it well thank you so much kaylee uh for uh joining us today to talk about starbucks and unions um follow us online on twitter and instagram at happen here pod and cool zone media and i think that does it does it for us can't wait for y'all to win yeah absolutely can't can't can't wait for you guys to win is as soon as as soon as portland

locations start going i'll definitely go in and support but until then i will make coffee alone in my lonely espresso machine. But yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for coming on to talk. Thank you. Thank you so much. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of right. An anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America.

Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.