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.

Starbucks Stores Ahead Of Earnings Figures

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.

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