Will Starbucks in Ridgewood Go Union

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, more than two dozen officials have signed a letter in support of union organizing activities at Starbucks stores in New Jersey, where workers in Hopewell, Summit and Hamilton recently went public with their support of the Starbucks Workers United organizing efforts. Voting on joining the union will begin shortly at those stores.

I am attending Wefunder Launch Event on Luma. Join me! https://lu.ma/communityroundlaunch via @LumaHQ

Unions dues are used for political contributions and clearly many New Jersey politicians are looking to capitalize . Democrat Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman and Congressman Donald Norcross have already jumped on the band wagon .

Workers at Starbucks in Buffalo, NY were the first to join SB Workers United late last year. Now union elections are underway at Starbucks coffee shops across the country. Employees at Hopewell, Summit and Hamilton are the first voting in New Jersey, where there are about 250 Starbucks stores with two in Ridgewood .

Workers say they need to advocate for better wages and working conditions. Bella Griep works at the Hamilton store. “When I started at Starbucks 20 years ago, I never imagined that I’d be strongly supporting an effort to unionize. At that time, I genuinely felt respected by my company. I never would have thought that Starbucks would so brazenly disregard the concerns of its workers. We now feel unseen and unheard,” Griep said.

Understaffing at stores has led to more work – but no extra pay – for workers, said Janeisha Allen-Adlam, a shift supervisor at the store in Summit.  “Most of the time we’re severely short-staffed, it makes for a really stressful work environment,” said Allen-Adlam.  The situation worsened during the pandemic, she said, noting that there were shifts when only two or three of seven scheduled employees were working.  “Starbucks management doesn’t hear our complaints. They are not hearing us or paying us well.”