Skip to content Skip to footer

Starbucks Union Celebrates as Last of 7 Fired Memphis Organizers Is Reinstated

The reinstatement of the “Memphis Seven” comes as contract negotiations are beginning across stores.

People walk past activists as they participate in a picket line outside Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz on July 19, 2022, in New York City.

The union behind Starbucks workers’ remarkably successful union drive is celebrating as a group of seven workers known as the “Memphis Seven” have been reinstated after the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that they were illegally fired by the company.

According to Starbucks Workers United, the workers have all returned to their jobs at the now-unionized store as of Saturday, a “triumphant” win for the union, it said.

In February, Starbucks fired a group of workers at a unionizing store in Memphis, Tennessee, who the union said made up nearly the entirety of the organizing committee at the store. In a press release this week, the union said that the firings were the company’s response to the workers’ organizing efforts.

“Once Starbucks found out who these partners were, in relation to the organizing effort, Starbucks executed a typical pattern — sudden corrective-action-investigations, issuing threats, making false accusations, sudden enforcement of policy, and separation from the company,” the union wrote.

Labor officials found that the workers’ firing constituted illegal union busting this spring, and a judge ordered the company to reinstate the workers in August, finding “reasonable cause” in labor officials’ findings. NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo hailed the ruling, saying, “Starbucks, and other employers, should take note that the NLRB will continue to vigorously protect workers’ right to organize without interference from their employer.”

The company has continually denied any wrongdoing.

The once-fired workers have vowed to keep fighting for the union and for the dozens of other union organizers that the company has fired in recent months. According to the union, the company has fired at least 130 other pro-union workers so far.

The win for Starbucks Workers United comes as their campaign, which has resulted in over 250 unionized stores up until this point, is potentially entering a new phase — one in which union filings are slowing down and legal filings and first union contracts are yet to be sorted out. Indeed, as The New York Times notes, while stores were once filing to unionize at a breakneck pace of over two stores a day, filings slowed to under 10 in August.

At the same time, workers are now getting a chance to negotiate with the company to form their first union contracts. Though employers are under a legal obligation to negotiate with a union once it’s formed, Starbucks has been delaying the process, with only three stores having had first bargaining sessions up until Monday.

Starting this week, workers at a handful of stores will be sitting down to bargain with the company; at least two dozen stores have set bargaining dates in the next six weeks. The union has said that workers will be seeking several demands, including non-interference by the company in future union elections, guarantees on the amount of hours that workers are scheduled for, an establishment of a labor committee in each store, and more.

Considering it took a pressure campaign from workers to get bargaining dates on the calendar, workers are not expecting the company to make concessions easily.

Indeed, workers who had their first bargaining sessions scheduled for Monday have already reported that company representatives have been late and have left bargaining sessions after just minutes. In Buffalo, in negotiations for the first store to ever unionize, the company refused to bargain after a few workers elected to join the session virtually.

Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One

Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.

Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.

Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.

As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.

And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.

In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.

We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.

We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $81,000 in one-time donations and to add 1250 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.

Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.

If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!

With gratitude and resolve,

Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy