Starbucks Workers United
Starbucks Workers United baristas are proud members of Workers United, which represents workers across many industries – laundries and warehouses, textile factories and manufacturing plants, and restaurants and coffee shops.
The American Party of Labor is a member organization of SBWU’s Solidarity Squad, and we rally our party members nationwide to hit the streets whenever SBWU calls for action.
Website: www.SBWorkersUnited.org/
Instagram: @SBWorkersUnited
Twitter: @SBWorkersUnited
Facebook: SBWorkersUnited
TikTok: @SBWorkersUnited
Bluesky: @sbworkersunited.bsky.social
Tumblr: @SBWorkersUnited
Igniting a Movement
Starbucks Workers United started in Buffalo, New York in 2021 and has grown to become a powerhouse organizing movement driven by worker-to-worker organizing.
We quickly understood that partners across the U.S. and in different types of stores – cafes, drive-thrus, mall kiosks, Reserve Roasteries, and beyond – all faced the same persistent and long-standing challenges. Short staffing and unpredictable scheduling, low wages, harassment, and more. Meanwhile, Starbucks raked in billion-dollar profits while touting social responsibility and progressive values. Increasingly, that rhetoric has failed to match our experience as baristas.
In August 2021, partners from different Starbucks stores in Buffalo, NY banded together to advocate for a voice on the job and real, material changes for their workplace. They filed petitions to unionize and started Starbucks Workers United (SBWU)!
The Elmwood store in Buffalo was the first store to win their union. Immediately, workers across the country were inspired to begin their own union campaigns, realizing their workplace issues were happening everywhere. Soon, hundreds of Starbucks stores voted to come together in unions, making SBWU one of the fastest organizing efforts in modern history.