Unionize Buffalo Starbucks? 😂

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

Headline story on CNBC tonight.

 

Buffalo Starbucks unionization vote!! They’ll shut it down in a month.
 

All Starbucks has is brand recognition and service.

 

wait til the first person waits 30 minutes for their Frappuccino order only to get to the cashier and be told “sorry, it’s muh break time” Or “I'm the cold beverage specialist, the hot specialist is out today”  

 

These two women on the news are hilarious. Good lord this newer generation is entitled…

 

 

 

[Wacka]

They'll be killing the name in WNY. Timmy's has several times more stores. Almost all the Dunkins closed. There are 3 Timmys within 1.5 miles of me.

[SoCal Deek]

One of the great things about this country is that they’re free to ‘organize’ if they’d like to. I wish them luck. They’re gonna need it.

[LeviF]

55 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

One of the great things about this country is that they’re free to ‘organize’ if they’d like to. I wish them luck. They’re gonna need it.

 

This is their only opportunity. There isn't a fast food or coffee spot in the region that isn't currently hiring. Everyone is hurting for workers so they see this as their chance to organize and leverage the fact that they're already there, trained, and can get a job elsewhere in a heartbeat.

[Orlando Tim]

25 minutes ago, LeviF said:

 

This is their only opportunity. There isn't a fast food or coffee spot in the region that isn't currently hiring. Everyone is hurting for workers so they see this as their chance to organize and leverage the fact that they're already there, trained, and can get a job elsewhere in a heartbeat.

I am really curious what they are looking unionizing for, is it just more money? Is it better work conditions? It just seems like a bad idea on the surface but maybe there is something in it that makes sense. All the Starbucks I go into seem to have happy workers 

[LeviF]

18 minutes ago, Buffalo Timmy said:

I am really curious what they are looking unionizing for, is it just more money? Is it better work conditions? It just seems like a bad idea on the surface but maybe there is something in it that makes sense. All the Starbucks I go into seem to have happy workers 

 

I haven't looked into it at all. Part of their issue will be that there is no local franchisee to put the squeeze onto. It's all corporate all day. In a market like Buffalo I'm fairly certain Starbucks will just shut it down.

[LeviF]

Update: one shop has voted to unionize.

Edited December 9, 2021 by LeviF

[B-Man]

48 minutes ago, LeviF said:

Update: one shop has voted to unionize.

 

Should we start a pool ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 9, 2021 by B-Man

[The Frankish Reich]

Good on you, Buffalo Starbucks workers. 

[LeviF]

1 minute ago, The Frankish Reich said:

Good on you, Buffalo Starbucks workers. 

 

Godspeed, indeed. They'll need all the help they can get, especially if they have no larger affiliation. 

[The Frankish Reich]

Unions provide the single best vehicle within the U.S. economic system for bringing back the "forgotten" middle class that both parties focus their campaigns on. I have no doubt that unions became too powerful/too obstructionist back in the 1970s and 1980s; they contributed to their own decline. But over the last 35 years or so we've seen the drop-off in unionized jobs go in lockstep with increasing income and wealth inequality in this country. It is time for some rebalancing here.

I for one applaud the concept of shifting more power to workers and employee through the time-honored mechanism of collective bargaining rather than the newfangled approaches like giving away money through increased "refundable" (read: you get a tax refund even if you didn't pay any taxes) child tax credits, universal basic income, etc., etc. Collective bargaining shifts the balance of power in the employer-employee relationship without creating burdensome new entitlements - entitlements that don't necessarily reward work, and sometimes actually reward not working.

[leh-nerd skin-erd]

6 minutes ago, The Frankish Reich said:

Unions provide the single best vehicle within the U.S. economic system for bringing back the "forgotten" middle class that both parties focus their campaigns on. I have no doubt that unions became too powerful/too obstructionist back in the 1970s and 1980s; they contributed to their own decline. But over the last 35 years or so we've seen the drop-off in unionized jobs go in lockstep with increasing income and wealth inequality in this country. It is time for some rebalancing here.

I for one applaud the concept of shifting more power to workers and employee through the time-honored mechanism of collective bargaining rather than the newfangled approaches like giving away money through increased "refundable" (read: you get a tax refund even if you didn't pay any taxes) child tax credits, universal basic income, etc., etc. Collective bargaining shifts the balance of power in the employer-employee relationship without creating burdensome new entitlements - entitlements that don't necessarily reward work, and sometimes actually reward not working.

A union is just a corporation by a different name, with those at the top often holding too much power and too highly compensated, with an eye toward benefitting one group at the expense of another.  At the end of the day, the customer needs are subservient to both the corporation and the union.  

 

Sometimes a Union is good, sometimes a Union is bad, but at the end of the day, it seems to me that automation will be what rules the day at the local Starbucks.  

 

It is interesting, though, that the supposedly uber-progressive Starbucks has decided unionization is not in the best interest of it's employees.  Do they cave?  Close down the store?   Seems to me there really doesn't seem to be much support for it across the board.  Three stores in Buffalo, a socialist hot bed, and only one votes to unionize?  

 

 

[The Frankish Reich]

5 minutes ago, leh-nerd skin-erd said:

It is interesting, though, that the supposedly uber-progressive Starbucks has decided unionization is not in the best interest of it's employees. 

Agreed. And we've seen this elsewhere: Amazon workers in Alabama (where the company fought hard to keep out unions), Tesla, etc. Coming soon to a purportedly "woke" corporation near you!

[leh-nerd skin-erd]

Just now, The Frankish Reich said:

Agreed. And we've seen this elsewhere: Amazon workers in Alabama (where the company fought hard to keep out unions), Tesla, etc. Coming soon to a purportedly "woke" corporation near you!

When all is said and done, you have to protect you.  It's unfortunate, ugly at times, but true.  

[SoCal Deek]

It’s coffee…I’ll go to McDonald’s 

[Wacka]

The Starblechs  on Elmwod was the only one that voted unionize. Six month till they close and it becomes another Timmy's

Edited December 9, 2021 by Wacka

[Niagara Bill]

9 hours ago, Buffalo Timmy said:

I am really curious what they are looking unionizing for, is it just more money? Is it better work conditions? It just seems like a bad idea on the surface but maybe there is something in it that makes sense. All the Starbucks I go into seem to have happy workers 

One of the staffers likely has a friend or relative who worked on this campaign. They all stem from good old Jimmy Griffin, when the dems ran Buffalo, with brothers and sisters and corrupt unions. Took years to clear up some departments. 

If you need job protection at a coffee shop you need more help than a union can give you, and the hiring manager should ge fired fir employing you. Just saying.

[\GoBillsInDallas/]

Question for you guys: The only coffee that I drink is a cup or two of generic black coffee out of the pot at the office. What is the reason that people are obsessed with Starbucks coffee?

[Chef Jim]

Their coffee sucks.  Get a Nespresso machine and have the best coffee out there for $1.10 a cup and you don't even have to put pants on if you don't want to. 

2 minutes ago, \GoBillsInDallas/ said:

Question for you guys: The only coffee that I drink is a cup or two of generic black coffee out of the pot at the office. What is the reason that people are obsessed with Starbucks coffee?

 

Sheeeeeeeeeeple.  

[T&C]

2 hours ago, SoCal Deek said:

It’s coffee…I’ll go to McDonald’s 

Same here, or Wawa... and they have free wifi too if you want to hang around there. There is a Starbucks 900' from my house and I've never been, but I pass it every other day going to Publix. 

 

And, like some have mentioned... they'll shut it down, "plumbing issues", like walmart does when the union heat gets too hot for them.

 

Full article here if anyone is interested:   https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2021/12/09/t-western-new-york-starbucks-win-right-to-unionize