The 88 East Broad Street Starbucks will vote on unionizing May 24th. Community members and Congressman Sherrod Brown have shown their support for the union drive as their management retaliates with an anti-union campaign and cutting hours.
“Even if other anti-union tactics are going to be played out, it’s so much more helpful to have that end goal in mind,” Ben Baldwin, an employee at this downtown Starbucks, said in response to getting a date for the union election from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Since the union drive began, Starbucks has launched its anti-union efforts at the location by cutting hours, conducting one-on-one anti-union meetings, and bringing in managers to sit in the cafe throughout the day.
Employees have noticed a large cut in hours since the union drive started, saying that they’re lower than during the lockdown even though business has increased, leaving some desperate to make ends meet. “We have people who can’t feed themselves,” said Jesse Perry, a worker at the location, “they want to punish us.”
