Unionized Starbucks workers from across the state rallied at the company’s regional corporate office in Atlanta to hand over a list of demands for better working conditions.
Starbucks Workers United is the barista union. Members in Georgia are demanding $20 hourly pay, health insurance coverage, guaranteed hours, and a safe environment for those in non-union stores to organize.
Atlanta Starbucks worker Amanda Rivera said this is about advocating for workers’ rights.
“We would much rather be in the store making coffee and being able to go home and live our lives,” she said. “But instead, we have to be outside in the rain, in the wind and, y’know, in the blazing sun because Starbucks will not legally come to the table — which they are legally obliged to do.”
Georgia locations with unions include Atlanta, Alpharetta and Augusta. Edgar Garcia-Lopez works at a Starbucks in Atlanta. He said one problem he wants to see changed is pay increases going to new employees but not the longtime staff.
“I have a friend who works at Starbucks and they’re still making, I think, $13 or $12 [per hour] and I’m making $15,” Garcia Lopez said. “Which is like a huge difference, especially because, you have to pay rent and all this other stuff.”
In the year since local workers have unionized, Starbucks has not signed the contract with workers’ proposals. According to Starbucks Workers United, more than 300 stores across the country are unionized.
This story comes to Rough Draft through a reporting partnership with GPB News, a non-profit newsroom covering the state of Georgia.
