WEBVTT - Starbucks Union Busting 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:08.880 Welcome Today, could happen here a podcast about fighting your bosses? Uh? 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:11.360 This is this is your host Christopher Wong and with 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:15.720 me today to talk about fighting bosses and bosses doing 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:19.079 incredibly illegal stuff, bosses doing incredibly shady stuff, and why 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:23.119 you should fight them more is Tori Tampolini, who was 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.760 a partner organizer from Pittsburgh Starbucks Workers United and was 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:33.320 fired from Starbucks like very illegally, under very sketchy circumstances. Tory, 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:36.400 Welcome to the show. Thanks so much. I'm excited to 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.680 be here. Yeah, I'm really really happy to have you here. Um, Okay, 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.879 So I guess I guess we should start with the 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.080 whole you were denied you were you were, you were 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.800 denied your legal rights and then fired presumably for union 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:54.800 organizing thing. Yes, absolutely, so starting from the beginning. And 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:58.080 there was like I was so a month ago my 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:01.880 store manager set me down and I like, he asked 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.360 me to come downstairs for a conversation. So I brought 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:07.000 a witness with me and we went downstairs, and I 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.040 found out that I was being investigated because there was 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:15.480 one day that I had written down my weekday start 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:17.960 time instead of my weekend to start time. They just 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:20.600 recently changed things at my store so that we opened 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:24.480 at we start opening shifts at five thirty on the 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:27.039 weekends and five on the weekdays. And this is a 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:28.840 recent change up. I had been there for three years, 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.080 so I out of habit. One day I had written 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:34.640 five in the book instead of five thirty. Um. A 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:37.680 couple of months later, it seems like everything has blown over. 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:40.280 They accepted the fact that it was just an innocent mistake. 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.160 I really wasn't trying to steal thirty minutes of time, 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:47.720 which comes out to like what six dollars after Like, yeah, 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:50.360 I was really desperate for that six dollars. So I 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.000 figured they just they knew it was an innocent mistake 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.960 and it wasn't going to be a further issue until 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:58.840 I saw two managers in my store. One of them 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:01.560 was my store manager, the other one was Her name 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.560 is Brittany. And what Starbucks has done recently is that 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:08.200 they've created this new position in the company. From my understanding, 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:11.720 it's called support manager, and they're basically like an assistant 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:14.639 district manager, and they go around two stores where there's 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:18.160 any sort of union activity, and they try to talk 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:21.160 about strategies to squash it. So it's like, basically the 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:24.040 store manager that did the most harsh union busting if 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:26.480 their own store gets promoted to this position. So in 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.280 my district, the person's name is Brittany, and I saw 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:31.320 her in my store, which is always a bad sign. 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.760 And um, at one point they asked me to have 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:39.919 a seat for a conversation. So I sit down, and uh, well, 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:42.760 before I sit down, I say, is this a disciplinary conversation? 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.720 And the manager said the one manager said to me, yes, 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:49.280 this is solely a disciplinary conversation. And I said, I 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:51.040 would like to invoke my wine button rights. I'm going 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:52.560 to go out to the floor and bring somebody back 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.320 as a witness. And they said, you can't do that today. 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:57.640 And basically what they did is they like held up 0:02:57.639 --> 0:02:59.280 a piece of paper like with a wall of text 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:00.799 on it like this are from my face, and they're 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:02.359 like it says right here that we can't. We don't 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:04.280 have to do that for you. And I was like 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:08.920 that's really illegal and I'm not comfortable having this conversation 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.720 right now at all. And they said, well, we're going 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:13.680 to hand this to you anyway, and handed me a 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:21.200 notice of termination. Um. Yeah, so I walked out and 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:24.240 walk back to the front of house, and I said 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:26.600 a little bit loudly, definitely not like shouting, but kind 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:30.040 of loudly. I said, I just got fired, and is 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.640 it okay if I swear to quote my friend? Okay? Cool. 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.440 So my best friend Kim was working at the time, 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:38.480 and she loudly said, right in front of our new 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:42.280 store manager, what the fuck? And I just kept walking 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:43.800 because I was so upset and I didn't want the 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:45.920 managers to see me cry. So I walked to the 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:48.880 front of house, or walk outside, and Kim follows me, 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.160 and she was like, we're gonna fix this. I'm gonna 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:54.480 go ask Pulieve Early and I'll drive you home and 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.520 we'll talk about this. Kim goes back inside, looks at 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.360 my assistant manager and says, I'm a question mission to 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.240 be leieve Early. And the assistant manager literally couldn't even 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.320 look her in the eye and told her Kim go 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.320 have a seat in the back, and they fired Kim 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:16.200 as well. Jesus, yeah, yeah. And I think when everything 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:18.279 about the story that I think is worth talking about 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.000 is that like when when it comes to union busting, 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:23.279 it literally does not matter how good of an employee, 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:26.040 you are unblessed, like you not being there will literally 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:29.279 cause everything to collapse. But yeah, I don't talk about 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:31.320 like you were really good at this, and they were 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:35.400 still just like no, fuck you. Yeah. So I was 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.040 voted by everybody at my store. I was voted Partner 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:44.000 of the Quarter in spring of I was also promoted 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.640 a shift supervisor within that same week. And later that year, 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:52.080 I participated in a Barista competition for my store and 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:54.919 I won Barista Champion for my store level, and I 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:58.360 also tied at the district level for Barisa Champion for 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.400 the district. So um. And then in addition to that, 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:05.719 I had dealt with a situation where somebody like leaning 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:09.760 against the front of my store had overdosed on heroin 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:12.120 and I gave him an arcan and basically saved the 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.720 guy's life. And then like a month or two later 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:20.440 they fired me. So yeah, which I like, I'm trying 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.400 to think of if like any other way you can 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:26.440 possibly go like above and beyond what anyone could reasonably 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:29.719 require you, that is more than I saved a dude's life. 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:35.919 It's like, okay, like you're welcome, guys, someone would have 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:39.520 died inside your store if I wasn't there, but um, okay, 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.000 by I guess yeah, And I wanted to talk a 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:46.320 little bit about about that, specifically, in about sort of 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:48.320 the conditions at the store, because one of the things 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:52.360 that seems really clear from from listening to you talk 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:54.160 about it and from reading stuff about it is that 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:57.640 it's not just I mean, even if you were just 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:02.640 like you know, doing kind of regular issue like service 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:06.120 workers stuff, this would be unccessible. But it's also like 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:08.680 there's there's this way in which you and your co 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:11.159 workers have sort of been turned into social workers and 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:15.279 are being sort of are being forced to like deal 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:17.880 with just all of the people who sort of capitalism 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:21.320 to say, I just like spat out absolutely yeah, and 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.400 sort of like fill in the gaps of just the 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.880 collapse of American social services. And yeah, I wanted, Yeah, 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:29.599 I wondered if you could talk a little bit about 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:31.919 the stuff that you've been having to do and what 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:36.800 that's like. Yeah. Absolutely, So. Something I've noticed in Market 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.599 Square is that it feels like there were some sort 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:43.440 of resources for the unhoused community that existed before the 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.599 pandemic that's straight up just don't exist anymore. So A 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:49.440 lot of that that work to be done, like falls 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:53.400 on the Starbucks employees. Most of us are completely unqualified 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.200 for that, Like I have a degree in psychology, but 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:59.360 sometimes that's just not really enough. Most of us are 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:03.000 film students at Point Park, so none of us are 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.080 at all equipped to deal with any situations where somebody 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:09.720 is under the influence of something and maybe becoming aggressive, 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:12.760 or somebody is having a mental health crisis, or there 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.080 are people that are sleeping in the cafe and we're 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.520 asked to pick them out if they're sleeping, but that 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.200 feels really really bad because there's not a ton of 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:22.960 other resources, especially during the day, I know, the shelters closed, 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.080 so when it's like winter or it's like ninety degrees 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:28.600 outside and someone is just trying to get like a 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:30.800 tiny little bit of sleep, it feels really bad to 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.280 kick them out. Um, So we dealt with a lot 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:36.880 of situations that we are just completely on equipped to handle. 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:40.600 And Starbucks would send us de escalation training, but most 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:44.040 of the de escalation training revolved around if a customer 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:46.360 isn't happy with their drink and they're shouting at you, 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:50.360 So it doesn't even begin to cover like any of 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:52.120 the stuff that we deal with that Market Square we 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.320 had like we've we've seen a lot of customers having 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:57.640 mental health crises in the cafe, Like what do you do? 0:07:57.720 --> 0:07:59.840 Like I don't want to call the police. That's definitely 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:02.080 not going to help. UM. In the situation where I 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:05.400 had to narcan somebody the we had called for an 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:09.160 ambulance and twenty minutes later, the ambulance still wasn't there, 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.640 And there were even managers at the surrounding businesses calling 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:14.840 and calling and calling trying to get an ambulance to 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.880 Market Square and it ended up like being me that 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.120 had to give them a narcan. UM overall, like something 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.080 that we were pushing for with Union. The main thing 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:25.840 that we were pushing for was better training, Like we 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.160 want Narcan to keep in the stores and we want 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:30.200 all the ships to be trained on how to use that. 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:32.280 And that doesn't have to be through Starbucks. There are 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:34.640 I know of a lot of organizations throughout Picksburg that 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:37.080 would be happy to train our staff on that. UM 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:40.400 we need like better resources. I know at one point 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:43.280 we were falsely promised a social worker that would sit 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:46.280 in our cafe for at least one day every two weeks. 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:50.679 UM never got that, And yeah, I feel like my 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:53.719 staff just deserves better, the community deserves better, and it 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:56.720 shouldn't be Starbucks's job. But until we have something better, 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:58.200 I think that we should be a little bit more 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.960 equipped to handle situation that, frankly, we do have to 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:04.440 deal with at some point, just by the nature of 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.040 our work and our location. I also think something really 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:09.920 funny to mention here is that we got a new 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.840 store manager at the UM. I want to say, at 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.240 the beginning, or like mid June, we got this new 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:20.240 store manager. Her name was Sarah, and she has already 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.600 transferred to a different store because she felt so unsafe 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.000 working up Market Square. She got her first Market Square 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:28.160 a death threat and was like, I'm out. So even 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:30.880 the store manager can't deny that our working positions are bad. 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:33.840 So the fact that they're still fighting against the union 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.120 even though management is well aware of how terrible our 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:41.559 conditions are. Just like baffles. Yeah, okay, I want to 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:43.080 I want to take a second and go back to 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:45.920 something that you said, which is your first Market Square 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.360 death threat? How common is this? UM? I think I 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:53.079 received a total of four to five and UM, then 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:54.959 I received my very last one. The day that my 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:56.600 store went on strike and I was standing at the 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:58.240 picket line and I was like, wow, it's just like 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:04.360 the good old days before. But yeah, market squares a 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:07.719 lotless land. Yeah, And I like, I don't know, like 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:09.800 I feel like this is like every time I do 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:11.520 this is like a recurring thing. Every time I do 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.080 a labor story, it's like, oh, this is a labor storce, 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:16.600 Like no, but it's also the story of a bunch 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.280 of like a bunch of people whose job this like 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.120 isn't who just wind up having to deal with all 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:25.760 of the ship that the state doesn't want to do, 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:29.000 that corporations don't want to do. And it's like the 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:33.280 the fact that Starbucks employees have to be the like 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.040 the Starbucks union has to be the group in like 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.760 in this place that is trying to get people to 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.560 get in dark hand training is nuts. Like just just 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:45.400 like just any like sort of just Macro taking a 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:47.880 step back level, like what on earth is going on 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.319 in the society. CAN have been thinking a lot about lately, 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.880 Like I think a lot of journalists and reporters have 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:56.959 asked me, like, why do you think that the younger 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.200 generation is the one like leading this like why are 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:01.880 unions making it back now? And why is his younger 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:04.679 generations like so ready to lead this? And I think 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:08.680 it's because we've spent our entire lives watching politicians on 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:13.360 TV make all these promises and continuing to do absolutely nothing, 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:15.679 and we're all sick and tired of it. We are 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.640 all ready to take it into our own hands and 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:22.480 fix it in any way that we see that we had. Yeah, yeah, 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:23.600 it makes a lot of sense. I mean, like I 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:25.640 my you know, my my first ball Okay, so my 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.000 first political member was the Rock War, but like I 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:30.120 was like a little baby child, but like like you know, 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:32.520 like I remember, like the thing I grew up on 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:35.520 was like yeah it was Obama, it was it was Hope. 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:37.679 It was changed, and then it was like you look 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:40.280 at the world now and it's like it's like, oh 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:42.920 it's it's even bleaker than it was in two tho eight, 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:48.079 which is like, yeah, absolutely crazy. Yeah. I think that 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:49.600 makes a lot of sense. And I think also just 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:58.800 like the last two years have been so prudal. Yeah, absolutely, 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:02.000 And I was wondering, Yeah, I wonder thing did you 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:05.760 can talk about like what affects the um, what effect 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:10.079 the pandemic had on Yellows workers and what effect that 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:14.920 had on union organizing. Yeah, absolutely so. Um, I think 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.360 that it really pulled the mask off the company, which ironically, 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.600 well everyone was putting the mask on. The mask off 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:23.120 was coming on for Starbucks because they always really pretended 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:27.600 to be this really awesome progressive company, and it really 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:30.600 revealed how performative the company is because they gave us 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:34.080 all these COVID benefits for like two three months and 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:36.920 then took them right away from us like before. Obviously 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.240 the pandemic isn't even over now, it definitely wasn't over 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:42.600 back and I think it was October they took away 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:47.880 like our chees spikes too, exactly. And right around that time, 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:51.600 we were also watching our CEO are now former CEO 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:54.560 Kevin Johnson, get like a forty million dollar raised, while 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:56.400 they had just taken away our hazard pay and there 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.359 are free food benefits even though we were all still struggling. 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:04.600 So then I think that us seeing those benefits being 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.680 taken away and realizing that the company doesn't care about 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:10.920 us in that sense made us start looking harder at everything, 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:15.360 Like the company doesn't want to increase our pay, they 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:17.400 don't want to give us credit card tipping, they don't 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.520 want to make our stores safer, um, and every other 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.040 reason that any store could see to unionize. Like it 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:24.920 really highlighted all of those reasons and all the ways 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:26.840 the company doesn't care about us as much as they should, 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.240 and how they really do just see us as a number. 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:32.520 So I think that's what really really pushed us all 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:35.800 towards unionizing. It's like, if the company doesn't care about 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.719 us and the people in our stores, then we're going 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.120 to rely on each other to care about us, and 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:43.760 UM push for reunions so that we can take matters 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.640 into our own hands. And yeah, and I think there's 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:48.400 there's a lot of the stuff that you've been talking 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:50.600 about that highlights how important that is, which is that, like, 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:54.679 you know, you have this combination of management either like 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:57.680 do the management immediately above you understanding what's happening and 0:13:57.679 --> 0:13:59.400 being like we'll just throw you guys at it, will 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.400 just literally bail and run away from how bad it is. 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:04.800 And then you have them the layer management like above you, 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.720 which is it's a bunch of bureaucrats who like couldn't 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:10.520 find their ask if you drew the map and you know, 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:12.640 or like oh, hey, here, here's your d escalation training. 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:14.880 It's about person mad about drink and it's like I 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:18.440 am getting multiple death threats. It's like it's I don't know. 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.680 We literally had a like someone from I think you're 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:24.480 either regional management or maybe a level higher than that, 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:26.520 like area management hume into our store the other day, 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:29.720 like as a customer and there was something going on. 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:31.960 I'm not sure if it was like somebody shouting in 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:34.840 the cafe or like two customers were fighting, but this 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.320 like upper level manager who should know about our store 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:41.400 said one of my briefs, does um, so is this 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:44.480 like a high incident store? And we were like, I 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:53.000 don't know, isn't it your job? Like really like wow, yikes, Yeah, 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:56.000 that's something that like, you know, it's not like I learned, 0:14:56.200 --> 0:15:00.360 Like it's something like you learned intellectually, and then you 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:04.280 just see like and then yeah, so it's not you 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:07.160 learn intellectually, and then you just sort of viscerally begin 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:09.920 to understand when you know you're doing work and you're 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:12.920 watching what your managers do, it is it's that like, yeah, 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:15.440 like the people who actually knows how the production process 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:17.200 works and how the stuff actually goes and what's happening 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.520 on the shop floor, Like are the people? Are the 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:22.000 workers there? And it's like every one above them is 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.360 just doing some other ship to just making everyone's lives 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:28.920 worse and it's just literally curating. It starts that nobody 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:31.160 the reason we need a union. And I tell people 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.000 this all the time whenever I'm going into new stores. 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.600 Nobody knows your store better than you. Nobody knows like 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:38.600 the inner workings of it, how busy you are with 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:40.720 the needs of the store, are better than the people 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:44.160 that are there forty hours a week. And another thing 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:47.160 we talked about a lot in like our our citywide meetings, 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.520 is like what do the managers even do on it? 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:52.000 Like what is their job? What are they working on? 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:57.400 Like what your manager do all day and her bushy 0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:59.880 little corporate up. But I guess you just union busting now, 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:04.600 even that they're delicated to another manager below them, So yeah, 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:10.160 apparently yeah. Did you ever see the fake tweets the 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:17.440 fake Workers United tweets that Starbucks published? Emil you a 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:21.200 copy of them, but they literally made this hand out 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:25.320 with a list of fake tweets from Workers United, and 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.040 like the company's responses, to them. But if you look 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.640 up the company's Twitter account, um, it just doesn't exist. 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.040 And the tweets from Workers United that they printed out 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:38.200 on these hand outs also don't exist. And I think 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:40.880 maybe three copies of that got handed out to my 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:43.120 store where we all made so much fun of my 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:47.280 boss that keep so, um, I guess that's my boss's job. 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:50.320 I will I can show these to you and keep 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:56.320 them on hand. This is this is like it's the 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:58.600 biggest energy of Like, oh, I thought of the perfect 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.240 argument seven hours later but didn't even the argument is 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:03.560 not even real, like they're they're just making up a 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:07.480 guy to argue with. Yeah, and he didn't even try 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.200 that hard because these were handed to me back in April. 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.080 It says that these all of these tweets were posted 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.720 on June one, so the data they claimed that this 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.880 was tweeted hadn't even happen. Whenever I received the end out, 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:22.600 I mean, hey, if you if you'll have access to 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:24.880 a time machine, I I have some work I need 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:29.320 to do. Yeah. Yeah. They say things like, in collective bargaining, 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.000 you start with everything you have and negotiate for more 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:35.640 from there. From Starbucks Workers United right there and then 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:41.480 the company's responses literally um and then though we are 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.639 one Starbucks account said in collective bargaining, everything is up 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.600 for negotiations if you have more, the same or less, 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:51.040 and once you negotiate a contract, you locked in, which 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:53.840 which is also funny because it's like like, Okay, you 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.800 are looking at that like you think that that is 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:59.760 actually like a thing that makes you look good and 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:01.520 not like a super villain. It's like, no, no, no, 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:03.560 if you try to negotiate with us, we will make 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:08.080 everything worse for you. It's like, really, it looks good. 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.040 You know. They try so hard union busts and they 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.160 just kind of stuck at it. Yeah, it's been it's 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:19.480 been comical to watch. It's very funny, which is really 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:23.240 funny because like I remember, like I didn't know it's 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.400 super boll but like I remember, I knew some people 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:29.120 who were doing Starbic union organizing like way about like 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:33.920 like two thousand, like six or something, and they were like, 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:35.520 you know, and it was like they were kind of 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:37.679 better at it, like they were willing to just like 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:40.800 throw resources at it in a way that like they 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:42.640 don't seem to be able to know. I think maybe 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:45.840 just because like the there's so many organizations, so many 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:48.480 organizing efforts happen happening at once, that it's harder to 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:50.880 sort of just like throw all of their stuff at 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:53.600 one store. But yeah, it's just it's like incredibly funny 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:57.159 watching them just sort of like flail and like you 0:18:57.200 --> 0:18:58.840 know what I mean, I guess like like all all 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:01.720 corporations that you need bust eventually resort to break the 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:08.480 law because you know the law. And yeah, had my 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:13.320 my district manager um came into my store screwdriver in 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:17.320 hand to personally make repairs at my store, it would 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.040 the funniest thing I have ever seen. It's probably my 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.080 favorite union busting story. But she was like, yeah, I'm 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:25.720 here to cover up the electrical outlets in your bathroom. 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.679 And we were like cool, why and she was like, 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:31.000 so that the homeless people can't like plug in their 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.040 electric shavers and shaven there. We were like, wow, we've 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:36.400 seen we've seen people do a lot of weird things 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:38.680 in the bathroom, and that's like not even one of them. 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:43.440 You are so out of touch. Oh my gosh, it's 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:47.000 been hilarious to watch, Like, wow, that was really some effort, 0:19:47.320 --> 0:20:03.040 but really, you know, absolutely not immediately now, there's nothing 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:05.960 I wanted to talk about that Starbucks is you talked 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:08.359 a bit about earlier about Starbucks sort of like having 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:14.199 this image as like like progressive organization and okay, like 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:15.960 one of the things they've been big on sort of 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:19.720 recently is like portraying themselves as this like pro l 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:22.920 G B t q I A plus like thing. And 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:27.480 I think, like, okay, so there's something that like traditional 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:31.200 media has finally discovered because they haven't covered labor organizing 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:33.359 in forty years and they suddenly started doing it again, 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:35.199 and they were like, oh my god, all of the 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:37.680 union organizers are queer. And it was like anyone who's 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:39.840 ever organized a union or anyone who knows anyone who's 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:41.159 ever been in the union could have told you this 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:44.600 like thirty years incredible stuff. Is like wow, congratulations, you've 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.440 discovered this. But yeah, I wanted to ask about sort 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:53.520 of I don't know that this kind of bind that 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:56.720 like I feel like we're people doing organizing are in 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:59.280 right now, which is that Like Okay, So on the 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:02.520 one hand, you have like in you know, the last 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.040 sort of year or so, this like incredible increase in 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:09.600 rampant homophobia but then simultaneously, like so you know, you 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:11.919