The tattoo petition would go on to inspire similarly successful efforts at Skechers, Publix and Jimmy John’s. Since then, many Starbucks employees have run nearly a hundred campaigns. Nearly 80,000 bartenders have taken some action on Coworker, and 43,000 are currently active. While many petitions were unsuccessful, Starbucks workers claimed victory for a number of notable changes, from six-week paid store closure during pandemic arrive Extended paid leave arrive needle disposal box in the bathroom.
Starbucks spokeswoman Reggie Borges denied that Starbucks had based any of its policy changes on Coworker’s petitions. He said the company gets feedback from employees through a number of channels, including weekly meetings, surveys, hotlines and a social media platform for managers. “Of course they said they looked at it, and it had nothing to do with my petition,” Williams said. “But I’m like, ‘for sure.'”
For Casey Moore, a bartender in Buffalo, New York who has been active in both union and Coworker efforts, it’s no surprise that Starbucks employees have made a difference. . “They are known for recruiting LGBTQ people and people who see themselves as activists outside of the workplace,” she said. “We also want to have a say in the places where we work.”
Even if they don’t lead to tangible change, Colleague recommendations can drive awareness. In 2016, Starbucks workers began to notice their hours being cut and their stores understaffed. The timing couldn’t be worse; Summer has arrived, and with it comes an insatiable thirst for complex Frappuccino drinks. A California bartender named Jaime Prater wrote to CEO Howard Schultz about the issue and published a petition on Coworker titled “Starbucks, the labor shortage is killing morale.” Coworker ran a poll for baristas on its platform and found labor shortages to be a consistent experience.
Immediately after posting his job posting, Prater received a call from Schultz himself. Prater said: “It was thrilling. He thought, “If the CEO of this company calls me, Mr. Nobody, action will happen. But it didn’t. ” Prater said Schultz was pleased to listen to his concerns, then turned him over to Cliff Burrows, Starbucks operations president in the Americas. The company paid Prater back for a promotion he allegedly received but never addressed the staffing shortage, he said. “It’s like, silence the messenger and ignore the message.”
The petition persists on Coworker, where it has garnered 25,000 signatures, 17,000 of which have come from Starbucks employees. It continues to collect signatures to this day. Some workers cited a shortage of staff as a cause motivation to merge.
Borges argued that Starbucks was understaffed and attributed the shortage to seasonal fluctuations, although Prater announced his petition before Starbucks typically cuts staff at the end of the summer. Borges said store managers can turn off different ordering channels, such as mobile ordering, in the event of staffing difficulties.
Although Prater’s campaign was unsuccessful, it helped draw even more attention to Coworker and expand its network of bartenders — more than 10,000 Starbucks employees claim to have signed the petition. offer in less than six weeks. Prater has appeared on news outlets like CNN and is recognized by Starbucks employees. Through the relationships he has built, he has gathered a document outlining the top concerns of his employees and the impact these issues have on shareholders, employees and customer, and pass it on to the company. Despite leaving the company in 2018, he says he still receives emails almost weekly about Starbucks.
