Starbucks fires Buffalo worker active in unionization effort
Starbucks has fired one of many staff who helped kick off a unionization effort on the firm.
Lexi Rizzo, an eight-year Starbucks worker and shift supervisor, was fired from her retailer in Buffalo, New York, on Friday. Starbucks Workers United, the union organizing Starbucks’ staff, stated Rizzo was fired after arriving a couple of minutes late for work. It claims the firing was retaliation for Rizzo’s vocal help of the union.
Rizzo was one of many staff who first reached out to labour organizers in 2021 to unionize Starbucks shops. Since then, not less than 294 of Starbucks’ 9,000 company-owned U.S. shops have voted to unionize, in keeping with the National Labor Relations Board. Seattle-based Starbucks opposes the unionization effort.
Starbucks stated Monday that Rizzo was fired for “repeated and substantial violations” of its attendance coverage, together with one occasion the place she arrived greater than three hours late for a shift. Starbucks stated it had documented six situations by which Rizzo missed greater than 4 hours of labor.
“Our policies exist to maintain a welcoming environment for all partners and customers, and interest in a union does not exempt partners from following policies and procedures that apply to all,” the corporate stated in an announcement.
Rizzo stated in an announcement that she’s going to battle to be reinstated.
Rizzo’s identify seems repeatedly in a call issued final month by a federal labour choose on the NLRB, who ordered Starbucks to reinstate seven fired staff in Buffalo after discovering “egregious and widespread misconduct” by the corporate.
Among different issues, the choose discovered that Starbucks was inconsistent in warning Rizzo about tardiness and illegally withheld pay raises for her and different supervisors. Starbucks is interesting that ruling.
Starbucks Workers United stated two different union supporters in Buffalo and one in Eugene, Oregon, had been additionally fired final week.
“Starbucks can fire our leaders, but they cannot stop our movement or stop the public from seeing the truth,” the union stated.
