How a Starbucks Barista Helped Spark a Unionization Revolution

Eisen’s push to organize her co-workers paid off in December, when the outlet where she works voted to form a union. The vote created a new labor foothold among the company’s thousands of corporate-run U.S. stores, and today workers at more than 100 coffee shops in dozens of states have filed the paperwork to form a union. We asked Eisen how she managed to overcome management opposition, and what comes next.

Why did you think you needed a union?
Starbucks refers to its employees as partners, which can be a little bit misleading. We’re granted stock, but it’s been used to sort of manipulate us into feeling like we have more say than we actually have. There was no investment in long-term employees, no checking to make sure we were doing OK, no reward for good, hard work. It became a churn-and-burn kind of job. And on top of that, we were told that our company was making record profits in the middle of the pandemic.