Guadalupe believes that nearly $10 million in state and federal funds will help the city level up to become the tourist trap it strives to be, and environmental organizations like Los Padres ForestWatch believe that releasing 4 percent of Twitchell Dam’s water supply during intense storm events in wet years will bring back the steelhead run to a very dry river system.
Both are dreaming—and we all need to dream a little sometimes, even if it amounts to nothing.
But members of the newly formed workers union at the Starbucks on Broadway and McCoy in Santa Maria are only cautiously pessimistic. In other words: They’re not dreaming.
Congrats to them, by the way! The vote to unionize officially went through on Oct. 3, and now comes the real work. Bargaining! Woo-hoo!
“There’s still a little bit of a mystery on how [corporate] is going to respond to us,” Shift Supervisor Jaylee Moore said. “They have the incentive to drag this out for as long as they want.”
They sure do. The longer they drag this thing out, the less momentum this whole union movement thing gets. As of right this second—2:02 p.m. on Oct. 4—only three of the nearly 250 stores that had unionized since last year (out of more than 9,000 Starbucks locations, nationwide) had started real negotiations with the gigantic corporation (according to several national news outlets). And those conversations had yielded a big fat zero.
The National Labor Relations Board is investigating more than 325 unfair labor practices complaints filed against the company (according to NPR). But I’m not sure that it really matters in the end because all signs point to Congress, which ripped out the board’s teeth long ago. The board can’t really fine Starbucks for doing inappropriate, legally questionable things, such as offering generous benefits and raises to nonunion stores only and firing workers who are also union leaders. The cojones on this corporation, amirite? They’re massive.
But the board can spank Starbucks and tell the corporation it was a naughty boy.
Bad Starbucks!
Sales haven’t tanked due to a year of bad publicity, the corporation continues to open stores and sell half-decent, half-shitty coffee to the masses, and baristas continue to foam up too-sweet pumpkin spice lattes.
So America doesn’t give a shit about how a corporation treats its employees, really. What they do apparently care about is culture-war politics, publicly shaming corporations on Twitter, and secretly going to Hobby Lobby and Starbucks behind their woke friends’ backs.
Because everyone needs another plastic reusable Starbucks cup and fake floral arrangements for their coffee table so they can throw the ones from last week in the landfill.
Starbucks has indicated in recent weeks that it was ready to get to the bargaining table! The corporation is planning to give all of its unionized stores three weeks in October to meet up and start negotiating. Sounds like a short amount of time to meet with a lot of people and discuss some difficult things.
Who has faith in these negotiations? Not I. I’ve got more faith in Guadalupe becoming a tourist destination. Especially if it’s getting a wine grotto.
The Canary is ready for fall but not pumpkin spice. Send one-pump, sugar-free caramel macchiato lattes with oat milk and three shots of decaffeinated espresso to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 6-13, 2022.
