Workers at a Starbucks in Downtown Cleveland might be the first in Ohio to unionize

Workers at a Starbucks in Cleveland could be the first in Ohio to be unionized. They are joining the Starbucks Workers United movement that first took root in Buffalo, New York.

Madison Vanhook is a shift supervisor at the West 6 ^th Street location and one of the workers advocating for a union. She says unionizing will help them have a voice in decision making about their work environment.

“We kind of feel like that’s not fair most of the time because it can be hard to sort of reconcile what’s actually happening in our day to day with some of the decisions coming down all the way from the top, in terms of COVID or just general, like, service industry work in general,” she said.

Vanhook says workers had expressed concerns about Starbucks’ handling of COVID-19 safety guidelines. She says they also hope to get better pay and benefits in line with the increasing cost of living.

When asked for comment, Starbucks responded by email that it did not have anyone available for an interview at this time.

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