JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Starbucks located at 11441 San Jose Boulevard at the corner of Ricky Drive is was closed all day Monday as employees protest outside.
The store has since reopened.
The store's staff is protesting to demand that Starbucks recognize their union, Hannah Craville, a shift manager at the store, said.
The store was one of the first three to unionize in the state of Florida.
While non-unionized stores have received "summer raises," Craville says the employees at her store have not. "So my baristas are still making $12 an hour when other baristas today are making $15," she said.
She says that unionized stores will get their raises at the end of the month. "There's no reason they're doing that. It's just because we unionized and they don't like it," Craville said.
The striking employees are also asking for gender neutral bathrooms, increased tip rates and better benefits.
"My hope is that they'll recognize our union and stop doing this. They're wasting money, they're paying lawyers a lot of money. And what we're asking you for is not that much," she said.
No announcements have been made about if the store will be closed after today.
Starbucks Media Relations shared the following statement:
"We currently have a strike happening in Jacksonville, Florida. Starbucks has great partners and we value their contributions. We respect our partners’ right to engage in any legally protected activity or protest without retaliation. We are grateful for each partner who continues to work and we always do our best to listen to the concerns of all our partners."
In regard to the wage increase, please see the below and here:
“Once a store unionizes, no changes to benefits are allowed without good faith collective bargaining. Partners still have access to all Starbucks benefits already in place when the petition was filed, but any changes to your wages, benefits and working conditions that Starbucks establishes after that time would not apply to you and would have to be bargained. At stores where workers have union representation, federal law requires good faith collective bargaining over wages, benefits and working conditions which prohibits Starbucks from making or announcing unilateral changes.”