STARBUCKS fired almost all of a union organising committee in one of its United States stores yesterday in what has been described as its most “blatant act of union busting yet.”

Seven workers at the Highland & Poplar store in Memphis, Tennessee, were sacked instantly — amounting to about 35 per cent of the workforce.

The global coffee giant claimed the workers were sacked for “policy violations” but Starbucks Workers United alleged it was retaliation for the unionising efforts. One worker, the group says, was dismissed for signing a union card in front of a security camera, not for security violations.

“I was fired by Starbucks today for ‘policies’ that I’ve never heard of before and that I’ve never been written up about before,” shift supervisor Nikki Taylor said.

“This is a clear attempt by Starbucks to retaliate against those of us who are leading the union effort at our store and scare other partners” (as the company terms its workers).

“Starbucks will not get away with this — the entire country will be outraged,” she said.

Workers at the store said they would lodge claims with the National Labour Relations Board.

The dismissals came soon after staff allowed the media to conduct interviews with the organising committee in the store during closing hours.

According to Starbucks Workers United, bosses pulled workers off the shop floor and even made them come in for individual meetings on their days off, firing them for reasons including going behind the counter when they were not working.

The unionisation campaign in the Memphis store was launched on Martin Luther King Day last month, with workers saying they were carrying on his tradition of “fighting union busting and seeking social justice.”

The civil rights leader was shot dead in the city after delivering his famous “I have been to the mountain top” speech to striking sanitation workers demanding better pay and conditions. 

“Starbucks has been fighting desperately to silence us because we did not back down or let them shake us. This store is a family, and an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” shift supervisor Beto Sanchez said.

The Memphis workers called on fellow Starbucks employees to organise in their stores in response to the latest union-busting attacks.
Starbucks was contacted for comment.