Workers in the Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) store at 67 Newtown Road in Danbury have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to unionize with Starbucks Workers United.
This is the fourth Starbucks store in Connecticut and the first in Fairfield County in Connecticut to file for unionization ”“ workers at Starbucks stores in Branford, West Hartford and Vernon have also sought to unionize.
The Danbury employees sent a letter to Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan informing him of their decision to file for unionization, writing, “After careful deliberation, we have decided that this is the only reasonable path forward if we want to truly ”˜nurture the limitless possibilities of human connection”™, which depends on the fair treatment of partners in stores across the nation.”
“I am excited to be a part of the driving force that will affect change within the company,” said Matt White, a barista at the Danbury store. “Our store will stand in unity with each other and the many partners across the nation who believe we are the backbone of Starbucks”™ mission, the people who create the Third Place for our customers. We hold incredible value with that mission in mind and we deserve the opportunity to live out that mission. We will see to it that Starbucks acknowledges and appropriately values our part in their success.”
Last summer, a regional office of the NLRB accused Starbucks of violating federal law when then-CEO Howard Schultz, “promised increased wages and benefits at U.S. stores if its employees rejected the union as their bargaining representative” while denying raises and benefits to unionized workers. In March, Schultz used an appearance before a U.S. Senate hearing to claim there was “propaganda that is floating around” that the company was anti-union.
