Community Corner
Patch AM Rewind: 'Understaffed' Starbucks Workers React To Unionizing
Baristas at The Gallery in Westbury Plaza voted 23-0 in favor of forming a union shop.
WESTBURY, NY — With a 23-0 vote, Starbucks workers at The Gallery in Westbury Plaza decided to form a union.
"We love our job, but we want to serve the customers to the best of our abilities," Jennifer Dunn, one of the organizers of Starbucks Workers United, a guest on "Patch AM," said.
They wanted their voices heard by corporate and the public.
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The Westbury location joins a Starbucks in Massapequa in creating a union, along with dozens of others nationally.
The biggest problem baristas faced was getting hours cut post-holiday season, causing the store to be "understaffed and overworked, when we didn't have to be," Dunn said.
Find out what's happening in East Meadowfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Once the union process started, another organizer/worker, Ashley Larsen, said the company tried to scare employees from moving forward.
"'You might not get these benefits if you're a unionized store,'" Larsen found out from the coffee brand's corporate level. "They can't take away our benefits once we unionize."
Watch the full "Patch AM" interview below.
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