Starbucks Baristas Accuse Service Company of Abuse and Pay Gaps

“The union has deployed a well-known tactic of using the media to frame its false narrative to negotiate these agreements,” the company said. HMSHost declined to comment on specific allegations, employees or managers, citing privacy concerns.

Caught between the union and HMSHost is Starbucks, which does not employ the workers who wear its signature green aprons.

Adam Yalowitz, a research coordinator with UNITE HERE, said the union wanted Starbucks to pressure HMSHost to improve conditions for the employees and to emulate the more progressive policies of Starbucks, which has touted its support of gay marriage, adapted its computer system to reflect the preferred names of employees and added coverage of sex reassignment surgery to the company’s health benefits.

“Workers are publicly calling on Starbucks to fix the problems at these stores,” Mr. Yalowitz said.

A Starbucks spokesman referred questions to HMSHost.

The union’s focus on transgender issues is the latest effort by labor organizations to tap into social groups that have felt disempowered to mobilize workers, said Jonathan Cutler, a sociology professor at Wesleyan University who has written about the labor movement.

“Organized labor often lives or dies by its ability to tap into broader social movements,” he said. “In this case, you’re seeing the most public effort to organize around transgender issues.”

The union said the employee data showed that 79 percent of workers were women and 64 percent were black or Latino. Many of them are gay or transgender, according to the union.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/business/starbucks-discrimination-race.html