In February, Starbucks fired us for trying to unionize, but our work never stopped. Now, we are known as the Memphis 7. Starbucks’ illegal retaliation against us was meant to make an example of workers who dare to demand better working conditions. Instead, they helped strengthen our movement.
This August, a federal court granted a petition by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that required Starbucks to immediately reinstate us in our jobs after upending our lives for eight months. We didn’t ask for this — we just wanted better working conditions. And now, we don’t just want our jobs back, we want to make sure that other workers won’t face retaliation for trying to organize a union. The court reinstating us is only a start.
According to our research partners at the Center for Law and Social Policy, the number of employers charged with unfair labor practices rose 16 percent in 2022; one out of every five employers is charged with illegally firing workers during a union drive. Big corporations like Starbucks often consider federal fines simply part of the cost of doing business. But what about the cost to the workers and their communities?
Reinstatement cases usually take a year or more; our case took eight months. We’re grateful for that. But we — and all workers who experience this retaliation — shouldn’t have been fired in the first place. Being fired changed our lives.
Nabretta, Tino, and Emma were students, with assignments and school payments due. Beto and Lakota had car payments and rent to pay. Nikki is a mother, with a child in school. Starbucks prevented us from getting unemployment benefits and left us to fall. Cut-off notices, late fees and overdraft fees were piling up. It wasn’t easy, and it often felt hopeless.
Union-busting corporations like to yell “our workplace is a family!” while turning a blind eye to important issues like understaffing, overworking, paying low wages and firing workers who ask to be treated right. But at our store, we’ve created a real community through solidarity — and to be ripped away from that was heartbreaking.
We miss our regulars, like the personal trainer who comes in three times a day for his venti iced coffee. And the Memphis Grizzlies fan who gets a five-pump iced white mocha, no whipped cream. We’ve not forgotten them, and they definitely haven’t forgotten us. They ask on a weekly basis when we’re coming back. Starbucks falsely said we created a “disruptive and dangerous” environment. But what’s actually disruptive are the millions of dollars the company used to union-bust, when they could have used the same amount of money and energy to provide more staff, make needed repairs to our store and pay us a living wage in line with Memphis’ cost of living.
What does workplace justice look like? The struggle isn’t only about reinstatement. It’s about making sure that all workers can speak up, form unions and improve their workplaces without employer harassment or retaliation. The NLRB has been understaffed and under-resourced for years. It plays a huge role in making sure the working class is taken care of and it needs to be funded so that it can be proactive, stepping in before corporations shatter the lives of their employees.
Now the court is considering awarding us our back wages. We are confident we will recover our lost pay, but we can never get back the time Starbucks stole from us. We are still dealing with the consequences of being fired every day. The court case helps show the world that when employers, even megacorporations like Starbucks, break the law, the law should hold them accountable.
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ABOUT THE WRITERS
The Memphis 7 (Kylie Throckmorton, Tino Escobar, Nikki Taylor, Beto Sanchez, Lakota McGlawn, Emma Worrell and Nabretta Hardin) would like to thank the Center for Law and Social Policy for their support in the writing of this piece. This column was produced by Progressive Perspectives, which is run by The Progressive magazine and distributed by Tribune News Service.
