Workers from seven out of the eight Starbucks stores in Eugene went on strike between August 8 and August 18, citing unjust termination, denied benefits and unfair store hours implemented without bargaining as core reasons for their walk-outs.
Employees at the Starbucks store on 29th and Willamette started picketing on Monday, August 8 in response to their store manager firing two of their coworkers and threatening termination of union-supporting employees.
Quentin Piccolo is a supervisor at the Willamette location, whose workers made headlines when they became the first Starbucks to unionize in Oregon earlier this year. Since the workers at 29th and Willamette first organized, Piccolo said that the same manager has been repeatedly writing up store employees for petty offenses and implementing unfair scheduling practices.
“He’ll write us up for being a minute late, for going into overtime that he approved and now is claiming he doesn’t remember,” Piccolo said.
While the impetus for the walk-out was the threat of termination, several other issues were on the strikers’ minds as they stood outside. In May of this year, Starbucks announced it would be increasing wages and benefits like maternity leave for all store locations, except for stores with unions or stores that are in the process of filing for a union.
Felix Blades, an employee at the West 11th location, has been demonstrating with his coworkers on the lawn in front of the store since August 10. Employees at West 11th walked out that day after their manager threatened to fire them for joining the Willamette store in striking.
Along with threats of firing, Blades said he and his coworkers thought the non-union unilateral wage changes were unfair. Other issues, like inconsistent scheduling and understaffing, were heavy on his mind.
Blades said that management at West 11th and the other Starbucks in Eugene have limited employee hours so the company is not required to give them healthcare benefits.
“They constantly disrespect our availability,” Blades said. “They see how far they can manipulate our schedules without us reacting.”
In his own experience, Blades has had to run the drive-through window, make drinks, warm food and watch the front cash register all at the same time during a shift. Enough work, he said, fit for three baristas.
Blades has worked at Eugene Starbucks locations for a total of three years. His store hired a new manager late in 2021, and he said management’s treatment of his coworkers has gotten worse since then.
“Two closers isn’t enough,” Blades said. “When closers can’t get everything done at night, the openers have to deal with the consequences. This creates animosity among the workers in the store, and severely impacts store morale for the Starbucks team and for the customers.”
The ongoing strikes have been punctuated with rallies. Upwards of 40 striking Starbucks employees, DSA members and concerned citizens attended the Starbucks union workers’ rallies on August 8, August 12, and August 17.
On August 17, striking Starbucks employees gathered to picket in front of the Starbucks storefront on Franklin Boulevard. It had been 11 days since the strike began at the 29th and Willamette location. Employees from several other stores have since joined to demonstrate against unfair labor practices.
Ian Meagher, an employee at the Franklin and Villard store, calculated that the city-wide strikes have caused 33 total days of lost business for Starbucks stores in Eugene.
The morale of the strikers has stayed high, Meagher said.
“We’ve got music, we’ve got cornhole,” Meagher said. “Every time a car goes by we get a flurry of honks. It’s super exciting.”
Prior to August 8, Meagher said he hadn’t expected they would have been able to pull off this level of strike in Eugene. The striking has been a major catalyst for Eugene stores joining together against shared mistreatment.
“We’re really capitalizing on the momentum to make sure we keep this thing going for when the next strike wave happens,” Meagher said.
While Meagher doesn’t think that these strikes will affect the executive leadership of Starbucks, he does feel that demonstrations are putting significant pressure on district management in the area. The last district manager was let go from the company after most of the district unionized, Meagher said.
“We’re definitely lighting a fire under their asses,” says Meagher. “I think we’re definitely getting noticed.”
Piccolo said that the strike is indefinite until Starbucks meets the demands of the strikers. These demands include reverting to the previous store hours schedule, undoing the unfounded write-ups against striking employees and management coming to the bargaining table with the unions. If any one of those demands are met, Piccolo said, the strike will stop and the striking employees will go back to work.
The strikers’ paychecks are being supplemented by two sources of funds: a national Starbucks Workers United fund and a Pacific Northwest worker-led GoFundMe. As long as the strike continues and workers are not receiving payment, Piccolo says, these two funds are helping the employees break even.
“It’s a slow burn,” Piccolo said. “The more coverage we get on the process and the details, and what it means to be unionized, the better.”
