Starbucks employees gather to protest policy changes that lower the amount of hours workers receive, as well as setting hour per week minimums. Credit: Wil Steigerwald
Dunkin’ Donuts fueled striking Starbucks workers Wednesday afternoon near campus.
Protestors gathered outside of the Starbucks on the corner of North High Street and East 14th Avenue Wednesday afternoon to go on strike about hour cuts, hour minimums and lack of response from the company.
Along with over 100 Starbucks unions across the U.S., current and past employees of the North High Street Starbucks were on strike after a change in Starbucks’ policy which cut the hours of many employees and shift supervisors.
“The things that we’re focusing on today is hour cuts,” Hannah Wright, a 2022 Ohio State graduate and shift supervisor at Starbucks, said. “Starbucks decided to change policy about the shift complement, which has cut a lot of shift supervisors’ hours specifically and a lot of hour cuts across the board.”
Wright also said Starbucks Workers United is ready to negotiate with the corporation about these issues, but it has yet to show up to the talks.
According to a Nov. 7 letter written to former Starbucks President and interim CEO Howard Schultz, staff members at the Starbucks location at 1784 N. High St. felt the working conditions were unsustainable. The location became the third Starbucks in Columbus to unionize in January.
“Starbucks is just refusing to show up to the negotiation table, so that’s why we’re choosing to go on strike today,” Wright said.
Starbucks Headquarters declined to comment.
The protests also touch on a policy that employees who do not meet a 12-hour minimum work week run the risk of termination. Wright said the issue with this, however, is the company will not schedule employees for the 12 hours they need to fulfill this requirement.
Sarah Voss, a first-year in exploration and Starbucks employee, said as a student who has a college schedule to work around, she finds it increasingly difficult to keep her job with the new policies.
“Considering this is a college campus, we all have class schedules to work around,” Voss said. “A lot of us don’t have cars. Like, I physically can’t really have a car as a first-year living in a dorm. So, it’s really hard for me to get the hours that I need to keep my job.”
Benji Galela, a fourth-year in film studies and Starbucks employee, said he wanted to unionize and protest because the new policies do not allow him to focus more on his future as a graduating student.
“The main reason that I wanted to unionize was because I cannot meet the 12-hour requirement because I am a graduating senior. So, I’m focusing on what I want to do after this,” Galela said.
