Employees at Florida’s first unionized Starbucks go on strike for back wages, better working conditi

Employees of Tallahassee’s oldest Starbucks were spending Labor Day on the picket line. The workers are objecting to the company’s delay in giving them a promised pay hike as well as other workplace issues. The store is on North Monroe Street near the John Knox Road intersection. It’s a place barista Addie Curtis said is quite historic.

“This is the first Florida Starbucks that has been certified in their union. This is also the oldest location in Tallahassee.”

And it’s the first Starbucks in Florida to go on strike.

“We are on strike because the National Labor Relations Board – the NLRB – is going to court against Starbucks for illegally withholding wages from organized stores.”

The store voted to unionize back in May and Curtis said workers were supposed to get a pay hike in June but didn’t. Also, she says the store’s equipment and physical space has many problems that management has refused to address. Officials at Starbucks’s corporate headquarters in Seattle were unavailable for comment.