Unionized Starbucks Workers Around Massachusetts Strike Against Exclusionary Benefits Rollout
Starbucks workers unhappy with a new national employee benefits rollout that will exclude locations where workers are organizing or have unionized went on strike Monday at several locations in Massachusetts.
Workers demonstrated outside of the National Labor Relations Board office in Boston as well as five unionized Starbucks locations at 1948 Beacon St. in Boston, 11 East Central St. in Worcester, 874 Commonwealth Ave. in Brookline, 277 Harvard St. in Brookline and 75 Mt. Auburn St. in Watertown. Store “Sip-ins” were held at locations in Gardner and Reading.
“Starbucks does a lot of good for people, and it’s done a lot of good for me, but unfortunately they also do a lot of harm and it’s inexcusable,” said Bailey Fulton, a Worcester employee who has been with the company at various locations for 16 years, during Monday’s demonstration. “All we are asking is that Starbucks holds itself and the management it puts in place to the mission and values it claims to uphold. … How can we support our customers and each other when we are under-staffed and stressed out?”
