Starbucks Strikers Say Company Made Them 'Unsafe' With 'Angry' Customers

Starbucks workers in New York have accused the company of "defrauding" customers to turn them against striking employees.

The Starbucks coffeehouse on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, New York, has been on strike since Thursday, barista and union organizer Michelle Eisen told Newsweek. But on Sunday and Monday, despite the store's publicly posted picket times, Starbucks turned its mobile order system on—forcing the workers to face angry customers who paid for their orders online and arrived to find nothing prepared, Eisen said.

Eisen has worked at the coffee chain for 12 years. In December 2021, her Buffalo store became the first Starbucks location to unionize in the United States. Less than a year later, over 200 stores across the country have voted to unionize, according to Union Election Data.

In response to these labor wins, Eisen said that Starbucks has cracked down on her store.

"What we've been dealing with at Elmwood was just continued retaliation and abuse for becoming the first unionized store," she said.

That retaliation escalated over the past week, according to Eisen. The barista said that she and her co-workers were receiving daily visits from Starbucks managers who pulled employees off the floor and issued written disciplines for mistakes "as silly as placing the stickers on the cups incorrectly."

"These are things that we would've never received written discipline for a year before," she said. "It's a way to create a paper trail. They can't get rid of the union, but they can get rid of all the workers who are supportive of the union."

As a result, Eisen and her co-workers went on strike last week. They had already picketed for three days when their store's mobile order system turned on.

On Sunday and Monday, frustrated customers approached the workers at their picket line. Some people insulted and swore at the employees, getting close to their faces and attempting to intimidate them.

"Customers were obviously upset and some were angry, and most of them took that out on us," Eisen said. "So I was upset and I was fearful. I've never felt unsafe on one of our picket lines but I was feeling a little bit unsafe in that moment."

The barista lashed back at Starbucks in a video that went viral on the Starbucks Workers United TikTok page.

"Behind me is the mobile order pay screen," she said. "You can see that it is full of orders that have already been placed this morning. This store is still closed and we are still on strike and these customers will not be able to pick up these products."

Eisen added that Starbucks demonstrated not only a lack of care for its workers, but also for its loyal customers.

"They are continuing to defraud their customers by having them place orders and pay for them and then not be able to actually retrieve those items," she said.

Starbucks told Newsweek that mobile orders were turned on because of a technical issue and denied any claims of retaliation. A spokesperson said that the technical glitch has been resolved.

However, Eisen said she found the timing of the mobile order problems "incredibly suspicious." The system turned on Sunday morning, but was off again by the end of their picket at 12 p.m. On Monday, it turned on just before their picket schedule started. Then it mysteriously turned off again.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Buffalo is prosecuting Starbucks, accusing the coffee giant of retaliation against union-organizing employees. The NLRB's complaint, filed in June, contains over 200 violations of the National Labor Relations Act and alleges that seven former Starbucks employees were unlawfully fired for exercising their right to form a union.