WILKES-BARRE — Starbucks baristas at the Kidder Street location on Friday filed a petition for a union election on Monday, joining a fast-growing movement of baristas working together to win workplace protections on core issues like living wages, respect, racial and gender equity and fair scheduling.
“We are not anti-Starbucks,” said Ashton Balliet , a shift supervisor of four years. “We believe a union is the best way to get back to what it really means to be a barista. Year after year, Starbucks claims to be going back to its roots, but the only seeds being planted are those in the CEO’s pockets.”
With their election filing with the National Labor Relations Board, the Starbucks partners at Kidder Street are seeking to join 11,000 of their fellow baristas at more than 550 locations in 45 states and the District of Columbia who have won their union.
Starbucks Workers United baristas have powered a “winning streak” of peer-to-peer organizing that has led baristas at over 150 stores to vote to join the union since February 2024.
The filing follows dozens of coast-to-coast organizing victories in recent months, including in Maine, North Carolina, Texas, Illinois and even at the SoDo Reserve located within Starbucks’ Seattle headquarters.
“We don’t ask for much,” said Bree Zavatsky , a barista of seven months. “We just ask to be treated as well as our customers.”
Lyssie Parente, a shift supervisor of six months, added, “This company talks a lot about change. Changing back to Starbucks, going back to our roots, but never about change that benefits workers. Instead we get increased workloads with decreased hours and a paycheck that laughs in our faces, all while feeding us the ‘we’re a family’ and ‘we care about mental health’ medicine and empty promises to wash it down with. We’re angry, we’re frustrated, we can’t sleep at night, we’re anxious, we’re depressed. The ‘medicine’ is not working, but we are still here because we are the change we want to see in this company, and we demand the respect and fair treatment we deserve.”
This latest move comes as Starbucks and Workers United are set to return to bargaining a foundational framework with a mediator present. Bargaining resumes after several weeks in which union Starbucks partners steadily escalated their national campaign, demanding the coffee giant finalize a fair framework that invests in baristas.
On Christmas Eve, baristas went on the largest strike in Starbucks history as 5,000 baristas shut down over 300 stores across the country to call out the company’s unfair labor practices.
In January, Workers United filed more than 90 unfair labor practice charges after the company backtracked on the path forward it agreed to over the future of organizing and collective bargaining.
Also in January, Park Slope union baristas waged an unfair labor practice strike alongside elected officials and community allies, several of whom were arrested for engaging in peaceful civil disobedience to protest Starbucks’ failure to bargain with workers over the closure or heed their demands to finalize fair contracts.
Local journalism matters, and your support makes it possible. You can help sustain this work by making a donation or choosing one of our subscription options. Subscribers enjoy valuable benefits, including full access to our e-edition, a reduced ad experience on timesleader.com, and more.
Your support helps ensure independent, high-quality local news remains available today and for future generations. Thank you for standing with local journalism.