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"We are taking collective action in response to the company's interference with protected activity when (Store Manager) David Vaughan threatened and intimidated striking workers during a protected strike," said Starbucks Workers United, a labor union representing over 8,000 employees at more than 335 stores, according to its website.
An SBWU spokesperson told Daily Voice Vaughan's alleged intimidation was aimed at workers at the 9th and South Street store. Details of the complaint were not immediately available Monday.
In a previous decision from the National Labor Relations Board issued in February, members affirmed a federal judge's ruling that Vaughan — then manager of the Broad and Washington location — "prohibit(ed) employees ... from concertedly discussing their terms and conditions of employment," among other allegations.
The Sunday demonstrations included workers from five of Philadelphia's eight unionized Starbucks shops, per SBWU: 10th and Market, 20th and Market, Perelman Penn Medicine, Broad and Spring Garden, and 9th and South.
“The union movement is really important because it reminds people about our rights as workers and the idea of labor exploitation," said Blue Garvin, who works at the Penn Medicine shop and took part in the strike.
"We want to be respected, seen, and shown respect. We want to hold Starbucks accountable to their mission statement.”
“Today’s strike was empowering," Garvin's coworker and union fellow Devin Moore said. "It was great to see workers from all across the country show up and show out for us."
A Starbucks spokesperson told Daily Voice it kept four of the five striking stores open with "modified operations by "staff(ing) the stores with partners from nearby locations" and sending them across the picket line.
The company claims SBWU has "only met Starbucks at the table to progress negotiations for 10 stores" out of the "hundreds of stores" where corporate has "attempted to schedule bargaining."
Starbucks did not address the allegations of union-busting at the 9th and South Street store.
The demonstrators organized a rally at Philly City Hall in Dilworth Park on Saturday, July 22, and picketed in front of the 10th and Market shop on Sunday afternoon.
The weekend action was part of SBWU's "Union is Calling" bus tour, which organizers say will stop in 13 US cities to "let Starbucks (employees) across the country know the union is calling and the difference a union will make for workers."
"For over a year now, Starbucks has racked up hundreds of federal labor violations and has refused to negotiate with our union in good faith," tour organizers say on the union's website.
"If Starbucks isn’t going to come to us, we’re going to turn up the heat with actions nationwide."
The "Starbus" was previously in Pittsburgh is slated to stop in Buffalo later this week, per the union's website.
According to SBWU, the federal government is prosecuting "dozens of complaints, encompassing over 200 charges and alleging over 1,300 violations" against Starbucks with respect to its labor practices.
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