WEBVTT - Activist Gianna Reeve on Starbucks’ Unionization 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.520 This is Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:05.960 the Thing from iHeart Radio. 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:10.440 My dad died in eighty seven, and I wanted to 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:12.480 try and build the kind of company he never got 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:13.520 a chance to work for. 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:19.480 That's Howard Schultz, three time CEO of the Starbucks Corporation, 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:22.520 when he was a guest on this podcast in September 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:23.960 of twenty sixteen. 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:29.120 So the entire business model was trying to balance profit 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:34.120 with conscience, benevolence, and social impact. So the first thing 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.199 I did was everyone at Starbucks was going to be 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.440 an owner. So I gave ownership to every employee in 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:44.040 eighty seven, which I've done since then. And I gave 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.440 comprehensive health insurance, first company in America to provide comprehensive 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:48.320 health way before. 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.360 The Affordable Care for every single person that works for you. 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:53.560 Yes, yeah, what does that cost you a year before 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.000 the Affordable Care Act? It costs three hundred million a year, 0:00:56.640 --> 0:01:00.320 more than the cost of coffee beans for Starbucks. Thought 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:02.480 it was crazy, and I was trying to raise money 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:04.440 at the same time. I had all these ideas and 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:05.720 people said, wait, you. 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:06.960 Want to get rid of that component? 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:09.280 Yeah, And I said no, I said, I'm going to 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:12.440 prove to you that we will have lower attrition, higher performance, 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:15.800 and our customers will know what we're doing for our people, 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:17.399 and it will resonate with the brand. 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.760 And this is going to be our marketing stretch. Though 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.440 Schultz is discussing the benevolence that his company has shown 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:28.000 to its employees, one could argue that Schultz is feeling 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:34.520 a tad underappreciated these days. While in the last five 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:38.120 years the stock price of Starbucks has doubled and in 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:41.720 twenty twenty two, the coffee chain's revenue reached thirty two 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:47.040 billion dollars, the US is experiencing a labor movement resurgence, 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.720 with union petitions up more than fifty percent in twenty 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:56.560 twenty two from the previous year. Current Starbucks unionization efforts 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:00.120 began in twenty twenty one, and the company mounted an 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:05.200 aggressive anti union campaign in response. As a result, a 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:10.040 federal judge found Starbucks engaged in quote egregious and widespread 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:14.040 misconduct unquote, and the National Labor Relations Board found the 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:18.400 company violated federal labor law one thousand, three hundred times 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:23.120 under Schultz's watch. Schultz was even called to testify before 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:27.440 Congress over the union busting allegations, and ended up stepping 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:31.840 down from his position early. My guest today is a 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:36.000 Starbucks Workers United organizer and an employee of one of 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:39.080 the first Starbucks in the country that filed for a 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:44.160 union election, Gianna Reeve. Since Reeve and her colleague's initial 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:48.160 organizing efforts in Buffalo, three hundred and twenty eight stores 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.440 in thirty nine states have voted to unionize, and more 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.960 elections are under way. I wanted to know how Reeve's 0:02:56.040 --> 0:02:58.679 journey with the coffee chain began. 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:05.160 Working at Starbucks in September to October of twenty twenty. 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.360 I started at a Tim Horton's. As you know, Buffalo 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:10.440 born and bred that I am. You always started like 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.320 a Tim Hortons or somewhere like that, and I didn't 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:17.320 really enjoy the job. I felt like it was a 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:20.760 series of management overstepping bounds. They were a franchise location, 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.600 so I was looking for something better, and what looked 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:26.080 better was Starbucks. 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:28.440 Why did you want to go to Starbucks? Did you 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:31.080 think that this was a good place to work? Do 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.040 you have a sense of it just was a quick opportunity. 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.040 They were hiring why did you end up there? Specifically, 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:37.880 from what. 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.280 I knew about Starbucks being a consumer first before a 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:46.120 prospective employee, I thought it sounded amazing. I looked at 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:48.880 the benefits. I looked at the way they treated their 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:50.880 queer employees. I looked at the way that they wanted 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:55.120 to connect with customers, and when, wow, this is this 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:59.040 is a company that really values human connection. That's something 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:02.520 that I'm missing working at Tim Horton's that I would 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.040 really like to have. While I'm working a coffee job, 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:09.680 I had a bit of rose colored glasses on going 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.280 in that were slowly taken off over time. But that 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:16.040 was really the thing that brought me to Starbucks, was 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:17.680 that value on humanity. 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.640 Now, when you get there, how soon do you begin 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:24.960 to sense that there's changes that need to be made 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:28.400 In your estimation? Was everybody like minded about this or 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.000 did you have to open people's eyes? What was the 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.039 dawning of we have real problems here that can only 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:35.320 be addressed by unionization. 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.039 Well that's a very loaded question in the sense that 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:41.480 I think each Starbucks brist Dom I tell you a 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.760 different story, but I can tell you mine, and that 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.200 my store location was one of the first three to organize, 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:52.320 and it started for folks even before they were at 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:55.040 the location they were at. So my location was fairly 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:57.760 new at the start of the union drive in Starbucks, 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:00.040 we were maybe a year old. At that point. A 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.080 lot of us came from other locations, and through our 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.560 experiences at those other locations, we were starting to just 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.800 become exhausted. We'd go through the right channels for things 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:13.040 like understaffing, harassment, trying to uphold COVID policy because we 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.880 were tasked with being the people to say, hey, like, 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:17.840 you have to keep your mask on, and people would 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.159 get aggressive, people would get violent about that. We know 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.760 how people feel about that. So we weren't experiencing support 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:27.360 and we weren't getting that protection that we needed from 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:32.160 management and from upper corporate levels, and it was wearing 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:34.560 down on everyone in different ways. 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.360 So in a sense, the genesis of this, the fuse 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.280 that led this, was related to COVID and COVID policies 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:40.880 in the store. 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:42.800 I think for a lot of people it was a 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:44.640 bit of a turning point in looking at the company 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.919 in a different way. But also even before that, the 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:53.520 earliest seeds of Starbucks Workers United movement came from another 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:58.040 coffee chain in Buffalo, New York, Spot Coffee Organizing, and 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:01.400 through them, one of our works workers at the first 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:05.880 three locations named Lexi Rizzo, contacted Workers United and said 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:07.680 that this is something that we need to do. This 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.400 needs to happen. COVID kind of put that on pause 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.120 for a bit, but even though it put it on pause, 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.600 it also started to stoke those flames. It really brought 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.600 the issues that were already there and existed within Starbucks 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:22.560 to the forefront of people's. 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:23.880 Minds, such as. 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:29.000 Understaffing, a lack of seniority benefits, benefits that partners have 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.960 a hard time accessing. I know more partners on Medicaid 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.320 than I know being on these Starbucks health insurance plans 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:38.120 simply because they cannot afford them. They don't have the 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:44.800 hours available to work. Starbucks often likes to parade their 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.400 benefits being available for part time workers as well, but 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.200 we're starting to see, and we have been seeing partners 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.520 becoming so decreased in hours that they're not hitting that 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:56.279 twenty hour a week limit that you need in order 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:58.320 to be able to be eligible for those benefits. 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:00.640 So they're deliberately scheduling it that way. 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.680 Yes, it's very difficult to be excited about benefits that 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.440 you can't obtain, and it's even more frustrating when it 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.760 feels like the company isn't listening to you. And one 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:13.520 of the best ways to get a company to listen 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:15.800 to you is to come together with your fellow co 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.000 workers and say, no, you need to listen to us. 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:21.200 Now, when you say partners, what do you mean by partners? 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:26.240 Partners is the term that Starbucks uses to describe their employees. 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.040 So we are all considered partners by Starbucks. 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:30.760 Are you still working at Starbucks now? 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:32.920 I am still working at Starbucks now? 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:37.280 Yeah? What's that like? Give us a description of So 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:40.600 you're at a Starbucks location. This one location, which the 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:43.360 one you were at is the Camp Road Starbucks. Correct, 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:46.160 you're still there now at the Camp Road Starbucks. Using 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:47.840 just that as an example, I'm not going to assume 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.720 they're all identical, but maybe they are. How does the 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.600 management breakdown? This is someone who's title, who runs the show, 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:55.240 Who's in charge? 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:58.040 If you asked Starbucks that it would be the managers. 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:00.120 If you asked any other worker at Starbucks that they 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.800 would probably say the shift supervisors. Why because shift supervisors 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.240 are the day to day sort of operations. The manager 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:10.120 comes and goes, the manager writes the schedule, but the 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:12.400 shift supervisor is going to be the one that baristas 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:15.560 are in the most contact with. If you're coming into work, 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.040 if you're calling in you're like, hey, I'm going to 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:21.000 be late, that's going to be your shift supervisor. If 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:22.640 you don't know where you're going to be on the 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.760 floor for the day, if it's going to be drive through, 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:27.760 or you're going to be on the espresso bar, if 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:29.760 you're going to be making the cold drinks, that's the 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:33.679 shift supervisor deciding that. So a lot of your day 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:37.560 to day operations are being overseen by the shift supervisors. 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:41.480 So the manager, are they off managing multiple locations? Do 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:43.680 they have them taking a little tour of the area, 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:47.439 because as everybody knows, Starbucks is kind of ubiquitous. Are 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:49.480 they going to different locations there? In Buffalo? 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:54.000 Typically, now that the union busting heat has died down, 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.560 it's typically one manager per location, But at one point, 0:08:57.640 --> 0:08:59.760 at the peak of the union busting and at the 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:03.240 height of the first three store locations union elections, there 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:08.000 would be sometimes five six, seven what Starbucks would call 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.840 support managers on the floor that were there to supposedly 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:15.120 help the Buffalo district because we were struggling so hard 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:18.000 and they just missed the more completely with us. They 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:23.720 were so apologetic, but really they were essentially spies. I 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.079 couldn't go anywhere in my store location without there being 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:29.760 one of these support managers breathing down my neck. I 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:33.200 couldn't talk on the headsets at work and have organizing 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:37.120 conversations without a manager wearing a headset and listening in 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:38.120 at all times. 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:39.400 Right out in the open. They did it right in 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:39.839 front of. 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:40.800 You, right right now. 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:43.800 Your phone conversation is about organizing, right in front of you. 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.000 Yes, it was never hidden as a secret that that's 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:48.280 their motive. 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.520 How did you feel about interacting with management? I when 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:55.760 you say that the actual managers, as supposed to the 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:59.400 shift supervisors come and go, what was your relationship black 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:01.520 with these people who were monitoring your phone calls? 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.199 So the relationship with management at the time of the 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:08.240 union election, I Camp wrote it was a lot of 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:11.960 me trying to be as professional and employing my customer 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.800 service voice on them as much as I was on customers. Really, 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.440 I wanted to make sure that they knew that I 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:22.040 wasn't just coming in to make trouble, because it seemed 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:25.160 to be like that was the feeling we were getting 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:29.280 about how they were depicting union organizers, and I wanted 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:31.640 them to know that, no, I've got a clean record, 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.320 I'm a model employee. I'm doing this because I love 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:37.280 my partners and I want them to have the best 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:40.040 experience at work as possible. I want this company to 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.680 be what it says it's going to be. So I 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:49.679 thought the best way to exhibit that was to remain optimistic, 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:52.240 remain nice. 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:54.120 And don't take the bait. Don't let them provoke back 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:56.400 to something where you're going to give them grounds to 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:00.160 terminate right now. I mean, I go to Starbucks, period, 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:02.520 and there's a lot more kind of owner operated places 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:06.120 I go to in my neighborhood, smaller coffee shops and 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:09.120 so forth. But I mean, I'm I'm a Starbucks person. 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:10.880 I like their products. I have what I order at 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.560 Starbucks that I like. And one of the last times 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:17.520 that I was out of Starbucks was up in Vermont. 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:19.680 We were there and I couldn't believe the pace, and 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.560 I couldn't believe the intensity, and I couldn't believe the 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:24.839 look on the faces of the women and the men 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:28.079 that were working there as they were like spinning, pivoting, 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:32.520 whipping and hitting the button to have the water shoot 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:34.280 the other thing to clean it and put more milk 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.240 in it, and they're trying to make these drinks in 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:41.120 this balletic way. But it was more it was like 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:44.240 some primitive army coming down a mountaintop to kill you, you know. 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:47.040 I mean they were like so the amount of the 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.680 heaving and breathing that was going on from these people. 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:52.520 They were working their asses off, you know, they were 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.680 working their asses off. There's a certain type of person 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.880 that they hire who is just like a super hard 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:02.040 working person. And those people that come there who don't 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.599 get it, who don't get the Starbucks program of you 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:07.880 got to be quick and you've got to be you know, 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.440 really fast moving, they don't make the cut. Is that 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:12.520 kind of how it works? 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:16.160 Yeah, they they don't last too long. You have to 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.040 move at a certain kind of pace like that, and 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:19.880 it's kind of like learning a dance how you said, 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.320 it's it is a bit ballatic and that you gotta 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:26.240 move around, you gotta it's almost like a part dance, 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:29.320 part coffee shop, part working in a kitchen, because sometimes 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:33.160 you'll be like, oh, behind hot, behind corner, going around 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:35.760 because if not, you're going to just have a pile 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:39.880 of baristas on the floor covered in sugar syrup and espresso, 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:41.439 wondering what the hell happened. 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:44.760 And you think also that there's people who I have 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:47.600 this image of people who, like day one, within a 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.160 couple of hours, there's a certain type of person who's 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:52.440 like in the bathroom crying and they're like, what have 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:54.720 I gotten myself into? I got to get out of here. 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:56.560 You know, this isn't for me. It's too fast. 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.600 It definitely exists. It's a bit of a culture shock, 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:03.800 that sort of feeling. It's I hate to say it. 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.680 Starbucks now sort of feels like the fast food of 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:09.640 coffee in a lot of ways because of that, like 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:15.200 increased demand for breakneck speeds and for pushing out as 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:18.600 much coffee as possible. The way that we earn more 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:21.040 labor hours to have more people on the floor at 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:24.680 any point in time is based on how many customers 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.080 we get in and out of our stores or in 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.040 and out of the drive through at any point. So 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:33.880 a lot of the times you'll hear barista's saying, you know, hey, manager, 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:37.040 so and so, we really need more people on Saturday. 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:41.000 Saturday mornings are just brutal. Can we get one more person? 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.920 And they'll come back and say, unfortunately, the labor doesn't 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:46.839 cut it. You know, we don't have the time, we 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:48.720 don't have the people. We need to work on getting 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:50.440 some more people out of our drive through and then 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:52.880 we could see if that ups our labor budget to 0:13:52.920 --> 0:13:55.480 have more people on the floor. So it's it's this 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:59.040 constant cycle of work harder, go faster, and maybe you'll 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:01.520 have a little bit of put on you if they 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:03.560 have another person to the floor, But that's a really 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:04.200 big if. 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:08.120 Well, Now, other than the staffing issues when you were 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:10.760 at Starbucks initially, what did you begin to notice were 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:13.200 some other problems? In other words, what were the problems 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.840 that were substantial enough that guided you to want to 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:17.600 start a union to address them? 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:22.560 For me, it was a lack of accountability for management, 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:25.720 a lack of accountability through the company as a whole. 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.680 Later on, as I began to learn more and more things, 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:33.040 but really it came down to the actions of my manager. 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:35.640 A lot of the time, he's no longer with the company, 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.920 but it was right when I started at Camp Road. 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:44.520 I transferred from another location in Buffalo from McKinley location 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.960 and came to Camp Road as it opened up, and 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:50.600 we had a lot of new hires coming in. They 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:54.240 were bright, prospective people, and I was really excited to 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:57.680 work with them. And as we know, there is the 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:00.560 stereotype of the gay barista, and I think so Starbucks 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:04.480 kind of loves it because we just they flock. We 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.360 flocked to Starbucks to work because it's seen as a 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:10.520 progressively valued company and it seems like a safe place 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:14.000 to work that you might not get otherwise. So we 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.760 had a lot of openly gay partners, openly trans partners 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:20.840 that came into my store to work, and they were 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:24.120 amazing people. I love talking to them, I love their 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:27.480 work ethic. They were going to be great. I remember 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.360 thinking to myself, these are going to be amazing people 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.320 on the floor. Once they get those drinks down, they 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:36.920 are going to do amazing stuff. And as time went on, 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.760 over a period of two or three months at my location, 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.520 I saw all of them forced out in one way 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:46.640 or another. One by one. Partners were being outed on 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:50.000 the floor by management where I would have no idea 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:52.400 that someone was trans, or I wouldn't know their gender 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:56.640 identity because what's at my business, and they would go 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.520 and say it out right. There was a partner at 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:02.280 my location and she didn't have access to a vehicle. 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.920 Starbucks has benefits for ride share and stuff, but it's 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:08.320 not comprehensive coverage to gets you to work from nine 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.200 to five, so she would rely on rides from friends. 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:13.640 But she was quick, she was smart. I thought if 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.680 anyone was going to really excel, it was going to 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:20.160 be her. And I came into work one day expecting 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.440 to see her on my shift and asked my fellowship supervisors, like, Hey, 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.520 why isn't she in? And they told me that my 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:30.360 manager had fired her, And that just left me a 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:32.040 little bit flabbergasted. I was like, what do you mean 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.640 he fired her? She was doing great. I'm not understanding. 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:38.760 And the reason he fired her was because she was 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:42.360 a couple minutes lately, two to five minutes late coming 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:46.480 into her shift, despite him knowing that she relies on 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:51.960 other folks to get rides, that she was trying her best. 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:55.720 She was doing amazing, and I've seen people late far 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:59.200 more far more often than this scenario. And she was 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:03.240 just gone. And she was so excited to use the 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:06.320 healthcare benefits that Starbucks re fights because it's gender inclusive healthcare, 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:10.040 so that she could actually begin hormone replacement therapy, she 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:14.040 could look into surgery if she so wished, and she 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:17.399 was just so optimistic, and she was so happy to 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:19.720 be working for Starbucks. And it was just gone in 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:24.359 a snap. And I saw this same trend repeat over 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:28.480 and over again, and I just didn't know what to do. 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:32.639 I was angry. I was frustrated because this isn't what 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:35.199 this isn't what I signed up for, This isn't what 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:37.800 I expected this to be like. But I didn't know 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:40.600 how to change it. So I was just sort of 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:42.040 left frustrated. 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:44.440 And you think that they targeted her because she was. 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:46.920 Trans I do think so. I do think my manager 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:49.520 targeted her because she was transit. 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.040 Other than the firing itself, he was the one that 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:57.280 made comments in front of other people publicly about her gender. Yes, 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:01.600 when you say that, I mean regardless of one's view 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:06.600 of transgenderism and companies being asked to pay for hormone 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.359 injections and surgeries and so forth, like that. I mean, 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:11.879 people are entitled to a certain amount of privacy and 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:15.120 dignity in the workplace. How did everybody else react? Because 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.560 what I'm getting to is, when did the moment come 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:21.840 for the unionization thing where it dawns on you and 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:24.160 you start to enlist people. Or was there a group 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:26.119 think where there were a bunch of people who you 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:27.800 were all talking to each other going this has got 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:28.520 to change. 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:30.960 Yeah, I wish I had an easy answer in the 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:32.639 sense that there was that sort of like click and 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:35.960 boom moment. For me, it was a lot of situations 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:40.840 like this where partners privacy wasn't being respected, where workers 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.000 that have been in a company for seventeen years were 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.240 making within a dollar what I was making coming in 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:49.440 at two years. So at that point when the unionization 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:53.760 effort kicked off, I was already ready to make something happen. 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:56.879 I wanted change. I just didn't know that options like 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:01.000 unionization existed for a Starbucks location until one of my 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:04.919 fellow co workers texted me and said, Hey, can we 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:08.119 talk about work stuff? But we can't do it at work? 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:12.760 And I was a little bit confused. It's like, what 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:15.600 could we possibly need to talk about work? Outside of work, 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:19.000 I'm not following, and he said, please, like, can you 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:22.000 meet me at Spot Coffee. I had no idea that 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.440 I would walk into Spot Coffee and be asked how 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:29.960 I felt about unionizing Starbucks. That one trip to a 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:33.000 coffee shop changed my life. 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:40.080 Activist Gianna Reeve. If you appreciate conversations about the labor movement, 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:44.119 check out my episode with former California assembly Person and 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.600 head of the California Labor Federation Lorena Gonzalez. 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.080 My favorite part of the story is having to go 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.680 to then Governor Jerry Brown. I mean, I'm like, oh God, 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:57.080 I got to talk to him about cheerleaders. We were 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:59.199 at a dinner together and I said, Governor, when you 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:00.840 have a chance on and talk about this bill I'm 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.320 working on. It has to do with professional cheerleaders. And 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:07.040 he said I was a cheerleader, and I was like. 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:07.919 Are you kidding me? 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:09.159 I've hearing this. 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:09.920 Luck would have it. 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:12.560 He was a cheerleader in college or high school. And 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:14.399 so I was like, oh, I think I'm going to 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:15.000 get this one. 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:15.640 But we did. 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:16.560 I'm very proud of that. 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:22.040 To hear more of my conversation with Lorena Gonzalez, go 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:26.320 to Here's the Thing dot org. After the break, Gianna 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:29.480 Reeve shares some of the conditions that led to the 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:44.280 unionizing effort at Starbucks. I'm Alec Baldwin, and you were 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:49.159 listening to Here's the Thing union organizer. Gianna Reeve was 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:52.719 a shift supervisor at the Camp Road Starbucks in the 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.640 Buffalo area of upstate New York when her location filed 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:00.760 the petition to unionize in twenty twenty one. A simple 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.639