Starbucks Is Punishing Workers for Unionizing
The only unionized Starbucks location in Canada is being excluded from a company-wide pay increase. Why? Because the raise is “not in the workers’ union contract.” The company has hit peak petulance just in time for more unionization bids.

A Starbucks store in Canada. (Brent Lewin / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Workers at the only unionized Starbucks in Canada were recently excluded from a company-wide wage and benefit increase. This was not a matter of oversight — the location is being punished because its workers are unionized.
On May 3, Starbucks Canada senior vice president and general manager Lori Digulla sent a company-wide email announcing pay increases for all classes of employees — or “partners” as Starbucks calls them — across the country. According to United Steelworkers (USW), which represents the workers at the Douglas Street Starbucks in Victoria, British Columbia, the location’s workers received a further email explaining that the wage increase announcement didn’t pertain to them. The Douglas Street workers wouldn’t be included because the wage increase was not in their union contract.
In a news release, the union said its membership is “steaming mad” about their exclusion.