Kevin Smith | San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Students at UCLA and UC Riverside are demanding their schools cut ties with Starbucks until the coffee chain ends an alleged union-busting campaign against its baristas. In a show of solidarity, the students plan to deliver petitions with more than 1,500 signatures to the two universities this week.

“The issues of Starbucks workers and the experiences that students face are intersectional, and we must be in solidarity,” said David Ramirez, a UCLA student, former Starbucks worker and member of UCLA Students Against Starbucks. Starbucks spokesman Andrew Trull addressed union concerns in a statement released Monday, Jan. 29.

“As a company, we respect our partners’ right to organize, freely associate, engage in lawful union activities and bargain collectively without fear of reprisal or retaliation — and remain committed to our stated aim of reaching ratified contracts for union-represented stores in 2024,” he said. The move to organize has grown rapidly in recent years with workers at more than 385 Starbucks stores unionizing with Starbucks Workers United as they lobby for higher wages, increased staffing and consistent scheduling, despite heavy pushback from the coffee chain.

Locally, that includes locations in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Anaheim and Huntington Beach. The push for higher pay and better working conditions has resulted in the unionization of more than 9,500 Starbucks employees, according to the Starbucks Workers United website. The UCLA petition, which will be delivered Tuesday, Jan. 30 to the board of directors for Associated Students UCLA, demands that the school divest from Starbucks and terminate its licensing agreement with the company. The UC Riverside petition, to be delivered the following day to Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox and top decision-makers at the university, will likewise demand that the university not renew its contract with the coffee chain.

Speakers at both actions will highlight the employees’ bargaining demands and share stories about what unions mean to the next generation of workers, many of whom will be college students. “When we graduate, we want to enter a workforce where workers have a real voice on the job with their employers,” said Eren Whitfield, a UCR Student and member of UCR Students Against Starbucks. “Bringing people together for a common purpose has been our main goal.” Workers at a Starbucks at 5757 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles voted to unionize earlier this month, marking the 33rd California location to join Starbucks Workers United.

The National Labor Relations Board must still certify the outcome of their vote. Andrew Gillespie, a shift supervisor at the coffee shop, said management tried to dissuade employees from joining the union. “At first, they said they wanted to let us know that the company was behind us,” the 26-year-old LA resident said. “But then they started posting signs and said our benefits could go away if we unionized. They also said, ‘We can make that raise you’ve been asking for happen if you vote no.’”

The raise management was referring to is an automatic pay hike workers already get each year, Gillespie said. Starbucks disputes that point and said it announced in November that all U.S. employees would receive a minimum of a 3% annual wage increase. Starbucks said it “will give all union-represented partners annual wage increases that are aligned to previous, historical practices for each store” — which may differ based on when workers began to pursue union representation.

“The starting wage for Starbucks employees in California is $17 an hour, but under the contract we drafted, no one would make less than $20 an hour,” Gillespie said. Starbucks’ board of directors recently released the findings of an independent third party assessment on the company’s adherence to its workers’ right to collective bargaining. The evaluation from Thomas M. Mackall, a senior counsel to the U.S. Council on International Business, found “there is no evidence Starbucks has or has used an ‘anti-union playbook,’ and that “the company has provided consistent reassurances to partners that Starbucks respects their right to collectively organize through fairly conducted elections.”

UC Riverside officials said full-time, non-management workers at the Starbucks on campus are university employees and are already represented by a union. “UC Riverside’s contract with Starbucks for its on-campus location expires in summer 2025,” they said. “Renewal conversations have not yet been initiated by the university, nor by Starbucks.” In November, UCLA students introduced a resolution at the student council calling on the university’s administration to kick Starbucks off of campus as a consequence for its “illegal union busting.”

That resulted in administrative law judges finding the company has “broken the law more than 270 times,” union officials said. In May 2023, students at Cornell University successfully demanded their university cut ties with Starbucks after the company closed all three of Ithaca’s stores – all of which had formed unions. By August 2023, the students won a victory when Cornell said it wouldn’t renew its existing contract with Starbucks when it expires in 2025.

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Starbucks workers at more than 100 U.S. stores are on strike Thursday in their largest labor action since a campaign to unionize the company’s stores began late last year.

The walkouts coincide with Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day, when the company gives free reusable cups to customers who order a holiday drink. Workers say it’s often one of the busiest days of the year. Starbucks declined to say how many red cups it plans to distribute.

Workers say they’re seeking better pay, more consistent schedules and higher staffing levels in busy stores. Stores in 25 states planned to take part in the labor action, according to Starbucks Workers United, the group organizing the effort. Strikers are handing out their own red cups with union logos.

Starbucks, which opposes the unionization effort, said it is aware of the walkouts and respects its employees’ right to lawfully protest. The Seattle company noted that the protests are happening at a small number of its 9,000 company-run U.S. locations.

“We remain committed to all partners and will continue to work together, side-by-side, to make Starbucks a company that works for everyone,” the company said Thursday in a statement.

Some workers planned to picket all day while others will do shorter walkouts. The union said the goal is to shut stores down during the strikes, and noted that the company usually has difficulty staffing during Red Cup Day because it’s so busy.

Silvia Baldwin, 26 and Tzvi Ortiz, 31, said they love being baristas at the 34th Street and Chestnut Street Starbucks in Philadelphia. But the work has gotten harder, with the understaffed store trying to fill delivery orders and in-person orders simultaneously.

“It’s just not viable. It’s very stressful,” Ortiz said. “And a lot of people don’t really notice, like, the humans behind this assembly.”

Baldwin, who is on the store’s bargaining committee, is also frustrated that the union hasn’t been able to bargain with Starbucks. Striking on Starbucks’ busiest day felt inspiring and it will “be impossible to ignore,” she said.

Others, including Michelle Eisen, a union organizer at one of the first stores to organize in Buffalo, New York, said workers are angry that Starbucks promised higher pay and benefits to non-union stores. Starbucks says it is following the law and can’t give union stores pay hikes without bargaining.

At a store in Seattle less than three miles from Starbucks’ headquarters, workers said managers were making drinks while baristas picketed outside.

“It’s been almost a year since we told Starbucks that we are unionizing this location and we still have not been able to get them to agree to a time for contract negotiations,” Seattle barista Micah Lakes said. “We’re not going to work the day that is the most important for you if you’re not going to be willing to meet up with us and talk with us about what we need from the company.”

At least 257 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since late last year, according to the National Labor Relations Board. Fifty-seven stores have held votes where workers opted not to unionize.

Starbucks and the union have begun contract talks at 53 stores, with 13 additional sessions scheduled, Starbucks Workers United said. No agreements have been reached so far.

The process has been contentious. Earlier this week, a regional director with the NLRB filed a request for an injunction against Starbucks in federal court, saying the company violated labor law when it fired a union organizer in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The regional director asked the court to direct Starbucks to reinstate the employee and stop interfering in the unionization campaign nationwide.

It was the fourth time the NLRB has asked a federal court to intervene. In August, a federal judge ruled that Starbucks had to reinstate seven union organizers who were fired in Memphis, Tennessee. A similar case in Buffalo has yet to be decided, while a federal judge ruled against the NLRB in a case in Phoenix.

Meanwhile, Starbucks has asked the NLRB to temporarily suspend all union elections at its U.S. stores, citing allegations from a board employee that regional officials improperly coordinated with union organizers. A decision in that case is pending.

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If you saw Lady Gaga on Monday (May 17), you wouldn’t be faulted for thinking this is not the same woman who once wore a dress made out of meat. Gaga, 35, was the picture of casual comfort while running errands in Los Angeles. The “Rain On Me” singer was spotted in a tie-dye hoodie and short-shorts while picking up some coffee at a Starbucks in Malibu. Her hair was put up in a messy half-updo, and she finished her outfit with a pair of colorful Nikes. Considering this is the same woman who busted out four different looks at the Met Gala in 2019, it’s a bit shocking to see her in such a low-key look, but considering how hard she’s been working, Gaga deserves to keep it casual.

Gaga returned to LA after spending two months filming House of Gucci in Rome, Italy. Gaga portrays Patrizia Reggiani, the former wife of Maurizio Gucci, in the Ridley Scott-directed biopic. Adam Driver will play Maurizio alongside a star-studded cast that includes Salma Hayek, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Reeve Carney, and Jared Leto. The story depicts how Patrizia “plotted to kill her husband, the grandson of renowned fashion designer Guccio Gucci,” and is expected to arrive in November 2021.

To pull off the Gucci look, Gaga needed quite the wardrobe. She was already an avant-garde fashion icon and a glamorous fashionista before filming House of Gucci, but the photos taken of her on and off-set raised her profile to a new level. The first photo of Gaga showed she captured the calm and calculating “aura” of Patrizia, who was dubbed “The Black Widow” during her high-profile trial in the late 1990s, per The New York Times. Subsequent paparazzi shots showed her channeling “businesswoman realness” and wedding-day eleganza. It’s hard to pick which of her memorable House of Gucci looks was the best – and the movie hasn’t even come out yet!

Perhaps the best “look” came at the start of April. While wearing her dark hair in a fierce look, Gaga took a moment to freshen her breath by brushing her teeth between takes. This down-to-earth moment was similar to the same casual vibe of her coffee run on Monday, proving that Gaga can bring the Avant, the elegance, and the realness. We’ll see if she can bring home the Oscar when House of Gucci is unveiled in November 2021.

Jason Brow | HollywoodLife

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