Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

The Kids Are Alright: Meet the 17 Year Olds That Want to Unionize Starbucks

They haven’t finished high school yet, but they are already fighting to organize the first union at Starbucks in the San Francisco Bay Area. Driven by the unionization wave sweeping the country, two 17-year-olds are organizing with their coworkers through a chat called “Union Babes” and fighting the company’s union-busting campaigns.

Facebook Twitter Share

The wave of unionization across the United States is showing no signs of slowing down. Alongside the important triumph of Amazon workers, who recently won their first union in Staten Island, New York, workers at the Starbucks chain have also been making rapid progress in organizing stores across the country.

Workers at more than 250 stores have already signed petitions to vote on unionization, and 75 are already unionized.

The state of California has just registered its first Starbucks union at a Santa Cruz store, but the movement in California may be accelerated by unionization efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area. There, two 17-year-olds who have not yet finished high school are leading the fight to organize workers and confront the company’s harsh anti-union policies.

As the San Francisco Examiner reports, “It all started when Clark, 17, saw the way the corporation was responding to a unionization campaign by a group of workers in Buffalo, New York,” where they had been targeted by Starbucks’ blatantly anti-union policies.

“I saw the way Starbucks was reacting to the union being formed and petitions being filed at other stores. I was frustrated that (the company) wasn’t respecting their right to organize,” the Tamalpais High School junior told the San Francisco Examiner.

That’s when Ella Clark contacted fellow student Emma Orrick, also 17: “We were some of the youngest workers here when we got hired around a year ago and we immediately connected over that,” Orrick said of Clark. “So, Ella talked to me about organizing and we met with the local Workers United rep. He prepared us for what our managers would try to do [to keep them from gathering signatures to vote for a union].”

Together, they organized a group chat called “Union Babes” with other high school students who work in other stores in the area, and they are clear on their demands: access to tips on credit card payments, turning off mobile ordering, wage increases, extra pay for COVID and sick pay, and better health plans.

Both know that they have the privilege of being able to look for another job if they are sanctioned or fired by the company, and that is why they are leading the fight by putting themselves at the forefront of the organization effort.

The company carries out harsh anti-union practices that include captive audience meetings, which workers are forced to attend and where management pressures them not to sign union cards or vote for the union. They also do this through store managers at all times and in the middle of the workday.

This harassment was even denounced by the National Labor Relations Bureau (NLRB), which ruled against mandatory meetings to hear anti-union arguments.

But it doesn’t end there. About two weeks ago, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced that a pay raise would be granted, but only to non-union workers, while unionized workers would be given nothing. A video was also leaked in which he called on store managers across the country to redouble pressure on workers not to unionize.

Despite the company’s long-standing claim of being a “friendly,” sustainable, diverse company and calling workers “partners,” complaints of low wages, harassment and poor working conditions have proliferated, as has the struggle to organize.

Clark and Orrick’s example can help advance unionization in the San Francisco Bay Area. Although they are a little younger than the rest, they are part of the so-called “Generation U,” who work in precarious conditions and want to fight for their rights. They are a new cog in a process that is already sweeping the country and seems unstoppable.

First published in Spanish on May 18 in La Izquierda Diario.

Translation by Maryam Alaniz

Facebook Twitter Share

La Izquierda Diario Argentina

Our Argentinian sister site, part of the international network of La Izquierda Diario

Labor Movement

Three tables full of food, with signs hung above them. One says "The People's Pantry: FREE FOOD." Banners hung from the tables say "Free CUNY" and "Cop Free School Zone"

CUNY Administration Cracks Down on Student and Worker-Run Food Pantry

Students and workers opened "The People's Pantry" seven weeks ago as part of a broader anti-austerity campaign at CUNY, leading to several direct confrontations with the administration.

Olivia Wood

March 19, 2023

Temple’s Grad Worker Strike Ends with Important Victories 

The last report on the strike from a union teacher at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Jason Koslowski

March 17, 2023

Teachers and Education Workers Set to Strike! Tens of Thousands Rally in Los Angeles 

A three day strike was announced by two education unions at a rally attended by tens of thousands of members. The workers are calling for increased wages, reduced class size, and an end to harassment by their employers.

Julia Wallace

March 17, 2023
A sign drawn on a small whiteboard, in trans pride colors. Text: "CUNY Graduate Center and Professional Schools Workers for Trans Rights" Beneath the text is a chain of 9 smiling stick figures in different colors, all holding hands

CUNY Union Chapter Unanimously Passes Resolution in Support of Trans Rights

The Graduate Center chapter of PSC-CUNY, the faculty, staff, and graduate worker union of the City University of New York, passed a resolution pledging support to all workers fighting the anti-trans bills nationwide.

Olivia Wood

March 12, 2023

MOST RECENT

Customers clear shelves of water Sunday at Fresh Grocer in West Philadelphia.

A Chemical Plant Just Poisoned Philadelphia’s Water: A First-Hand Account of the Crisis

A company dumped thousands of gallons of poisonous chemicals into Philadelphia’s drinking water. This is an on-the-ground account by a Philadelphia worker and socialist.

Jason Koslowski

March 27, 2023
A group of protesters, in the front of whom are a line of protesters wearing red vests. In the front right corner, a white sign reds "vive la retraite," with a skeleton wearing a red hat in the middle of the sign on a black background with a text bubble on its left that reads, "oiv a bosse, c'est pas pour en crever!"

“French March”: The Right to Revolutionary Optimism

Evoking memories of '68, the students enter the fight against Macron. In our chaotic world, the future can only be built in the streets.

Eduardo Castilla

March 26, 2023

Joe Biden Is Deporting Russians Who Escaped Putin’s Draft — Let Them All In!

The United States is deporting Russians who sought asylum following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is a heinous attack against war resisters and shows that the proxy war in Ukraine is about capitalist rivalry first and foremost.

Sam Carliner

March 26, 2023

On Monday, Germany Will Experience a “Mega-Strike”

On March 27, German railway workers and public sector employees will shut down the whole country. All trains are being canceled. Airports, freeways, hospitals, and daycare centers will all be affected.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 25, 2023