Oak Park Starbucks workers win union election despite retaliatory firing

On Thursday, April 6 Amanda Carelli walked into what she thought was going to be just another average day at her job as a barista at the Starbucks in Oak Park.

According to Carelli that day her store manager was off site all day for meetings. He showed up later that afternoon with the district manager and about 20 minutes later another store manager from a nearby store also came.

“The district manager had a smile on her face. She said, ‘Hi Amanda, how are you? Would you like sitting with us?’”

Carelli responded that she preferred standing. She recalls the district manager saying that because of an incident a few weeks ago where Carelli was swearing in the back room that the company has decided to terminate her. 

Carelli says that as she walked out of the building she did one last act of rebellion. “I screamed that there will still be a fucking union at this store.”

Despite the firing and what Carelli claims were a series of union-busting captive audience meetings, five days later the workers still voted 12-1 to unionize.

The workers at the Starbucks in Oak Park join 300 other stores across the country who have successfully won union elections at the global chain. The first store was unionized on December 9, 2021 in Buffalo, New York. Since then Starbucks has been accused of being one of the most anti-union companies in recent American history. The company has been accused of firing more than 200 pro-union workers, closed several unionized stores, has been subject to eighty NLRB complaints for labor law violations and currently has more than 1,400 unfair labor practice charges against them. 

Carelli says that it was only after Red Cup Day, a promotional event where Starbucks gives customers a free cup when they order a seasonal drink, that she and her co-workers decided to unionize. Red Cup Day is usually the busiest day of the year for Starbucks baristas. In 2022 more than 2000 workers at 100 Starbucks locations had gone on strike.

“I had just had enough,” Carelli said. “The way we were treated and the way they were going about it… After Red Cup Day I went looking for how we could organize with a union.”

According to her, workers at the Oak Park store were experiencing drastic cuts to their hours, impacting their ability to qualify for company benefits and pay their bills.

Because she wasn’t receiving at least 20 hours a week, Carelli says she was denied health insurance via the plan that Starbucks offers its employees. Instead she pays nearly $600 a month for private insurance.

March 13 is when the Oak Park Starbucks workers delivered a letter to their manager announcing their intent to unionize. Shortly after Carelli would be fired, for what she alleges is retaliation for union organizing. She has since filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

After she was fired local community members in Oak Park and the surrounding area stepped up to support the workers. Many started a Go Fund Me where supporters could donate to support Carelli.

“If it wasn’t for the Go Fund Me I wouldn’t know how my bills would get paid for the next month,” she said.

Dave Peterson, who lives in Berwyn, helped mobilize community members in Berwyn and Oak Park to show support for the Starbucks workers. According to him, nearly 70 people donated to the Go Fund Me right before the union election.

He also encouraged dozens of people to show up to the Starbucks in person to participate in sip-ins and demonstrations where they voiced their support for the Starbucks workers.

“This is a commitment. We need to have long term commitments to a movement. This is a real effort for people to improve their lives together. It’s laudable in every way,” he said. 

Now that the baristas at the Oak Park Starbucks have won their union election, the next step is to prepare for bargaining, however nationwide Starbucks has been dragging its feet on bargaining a contract with baristas.

On March 29, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz testified in front of the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee where he was questioned on the company’s response to the growing union movement in its stores. A day later, Starbucks shareholders voted in favor of an independent review into the company’s union-busting allegations. 

Meanwhile, in Oak Park Starbucks workers and community members are eager to continue advocating for better working conditions.

“It confirmed for me that these workers are clear eyed. They’re determined and they’re doing the right thing for each other,” said Peterson. “I love seeing that unity.”