Buffalo Starbuck’s Workers Jump For Joy As They Unionize, Wait To Be Replaced By Machines

I saw this one a couple days ago, but, it’s a video that’s making me laugh

Buffalo worker blasts ‘union-busting’ Starbucks as results at 1 cafe are challenged

Workers at one Starbucks (SBUX) Store in Buffalo, New York, won a contentious victory last week by becoming the coffee giant’s first unionized workplace.

Yet after votes were counted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a second cafe on Camp Road narrowly rejected the measure, an outcome organizers plan to challenge. Union organizers and their attorney claim there were “voices” that weren’t heard.

“I don’t accept that as the full number at the end of the day, it being 12 [against] to 8 [in favor], just because as I know that there are people in my location that did not get their ballots counted,” Gianna Reeve, a shift supervisor at the Camp Road Starbucks, told Yahoo Finance on Friday. (snip)

According to Reeve, Starbucks — which publicly opposed the union vote — had closed down one of the locations in the area, and allowed those employees from that store to work at the third cafe on Genesee Street for about two weeks. The company then “declared” them eligible to vote, according to Reeve.

“We’ve always kind of theorized that this was a union busting tactic from Starbucks to kind of stuff the ballots,” said Reeve.

See, it’s OK for the union to challenge, but, not the company. And the stores are not franchised. They can be licensed, but, for all intent purposes, they are 100% owned by Starbucks.

And, if they think unionizing will make much of a difference in pay, benefits, etc, no. Especially when there is a lot of turnover. And the store can simply close. And the unskilled workers working on their philosophy degrees or something ending with “Studies” can easily be replaced by machines that are never late, never have to leave early, don’t lecture customers, and don’t play political games.

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16 Responses to “Buffalo Starbuck’s Workers Jump For Joy As They Unionize, Wait To Be Replaced By Machines”

  1. Zendo Deb says:

    One of the shocks that usually hit newly-unionized workers is the 200 bucks a month, or whatever, that the union takes out of their pay.

  2. Elwood P. Dowd says:

    Conservatives pretend to support the “working man”, yet ALWAYS oppose unions and support company management. Always.

    It’s almost as if the con elites “use” the white working class for votes but actually answer to the plutocrats (the true con constituency). They suggest they’ll clip the immigrants, Blacks, gays, trans, end abortion, put God back into America… but end up cutting taxes for the rich and corporations, and increasing the debt. And keeping the masses down.

    • david7134 says:

      Jeff,
      Unions and the working man are not the same thing. But you knew that and all the other comments are your usual bullshit. In fact, I would say that unions are one of the principal reasons that the US can not compete in the world economy, they have made the cost of labor excessive and they are utterly corrupt.

      • Elwood P. Dowd says:

        Porter,

        We didn’t expect you to sympathize with the working man.

        Porter: I would say that unions are one of the principal reasons that the US can not compete in the world economy

        Who says that US workers can’t compete in the world economy?

        The 10.5% of American workers belonging to labor unions is why the US can not compete in the world economy. All those union carpenters, electricians, plumbers, steelworkers etc are harming the economy? Do you really think that non-union Chinese carpenters, electricians and plumbers build houses in China and ship them here?

    • Unions exist to protect workers by banding together against poor working conditions, dangerous working conditions, poor management. How hard can it be working at a Starbucks? For that case, what about those working for government? Democrats tell us government is great. How hard can it be working for government?

      • david7134 says:

        Before Hitler started killing everybody, he did some things that worked. He got together all the Union people, asked for their demands and I acted them. After all said and done, he gathered them again and said, all your desires are met so now you are finished. He outlawed the unions. His economy took off.

      • Elwood P. Dowd says:

        You left out the impact of unions on wages and benefits. Unions enable a distribution of power between the company and the workers.

        • david7134 says:

          Jeff,
          ???

          That is what we are talking about. Unions over the decades have killed the US with excessive demands. Or the teachers Union, they are destroying our education system.

        • Yes, that can happen, but, not at a small store with what, 10-15 employees? Who are easier to replace than give raises. There will be lots of turnover, and they darned sure aren’t going to negotiate for ridiculous wages. The company will simply say “no.” What leverage do the workers have? Walk out? They’ll be replaced. Perhaps with machines.

  3. Zombies are Cool says:

    My wife worked in a workplace that allowed a union. You did not have to belong to the union to work there, so my wife chose not to pay the union dues.

    What benefits did the union provide?

    The basic monetary union benefit was the privilege of buying dental insurance from Delta Dental that paid basically about 1/2 of every procedure. (The pay was dictated by the state)They would have the employer take about 12.00 per month out of her check if she had been in the union. Buying the same policy as an individual costs around 25.00 per month. So the union Dues were 45.00 per month to save her 13.00 per month.

    I say that because if she was involved in a workplace dispute the union would represent her anyway.

    In fact she had no alternative but to allow the union to represent her. In one case she was shredded by the Principal of the school she was teaching for being on the same playground after school as another student who got into a jeep with an old man who was a family friend and the child willing got in the jeep telling my wife who was walking to her car that he was a family friend.

    The mother arrived and wanted to know where the kid was. This was after school was over and everyone had gone home with the exception of a few teachers and the principal and secretary. They called my wife who said yeah he got in a jeep with Mr. So and So who was in fact a volunteer with that school to help twice a week with reading.

    The next day my wife is written up because she was the last one to talk to the child as she was leaving the building for the day. Rather than the principal accepting responsibility, she threw my wife under the bus. The union said don’t worry we will handle this.

    Long story short, they held a short meeting told my wife she should have paid her dues and let the reprimand stand.

    From that point on my wife despised unions and would never join one.

  4. What a World says:

    Missed in all of this is Starbucks who pretends to be the great protector of the working man and a Green defender to the death, is fighting unions tooth and nail.

    The best cup of coffee I have ever had was from a small wannabe coffee shop in the same Mall that Sammy Hagar’s restaurant(Cabo Wabo is the restaurant’s name, which incidentally might very well have been the best hamburger and fries I have ever eaten as well) resides in Las Vegas. That coffee was out of this world. The real gems of Las Vegas are not found in the giant Corporate casinos, by the way, and I am not necessarily an Anti-Corporate shill.

    I have never paid for a cup of coffee from Starbucks because of their political BS which is nothing more than a cover to make insane amounts of money for the Corp. without any push back by the idiots on the left that used to love hating Corporations as part of their canned speeches during election time.

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