Starbucks workers speak up for coworker in Clearwater allegedly fired over union activity

Starbucks workers organized a “march on the boss” at a Starbucks cafe in downtown Clearwater last Thursday in an act of protest over the firing of one of their coworkers who had been a leader in workers’ unionization effort.

Although the worker, Raven Schvartz, was allegedly fired for tardiness, the 20-year-old barista and her coworkers suspect she was unlawfully fired in part due to her leading role in helping to form a union at their store last year. Under federal labor law, it’s generally illegal for an employer to fire, discipline, or otherwise retaliate against a worker for union activity—although an estimated 41% of employers are charged with breaking labor law during union campaigns anyway, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

“It is ridiculous that while we are understaffed and overworked, our management would even consider letting one of our best partners go,” said Starbucks barista Ethan Best, speaking in a circle of roughly five other coworkers during a protest action April 24. “Raven was one of our most active union members, and we believe this is a factor in why they were punished for tardiness and others were not.”

Workers at the downtown Clearwater cafe, located at 433 Cleveland St., first voted nearly unanimously to unionize with Starbucks Workers United last August. This came after nearly a full year of having conversations with coworkers, which at times involved addressing stigma and negative stereotypes about unions. With their vote, the store joined 11 other corporate-owned Starbucks cafes in Florida that have similarly unionized in recent years, including in Tampa, as part of a national, grassroots movement of progressive-minded baristas.

“Our customers’ wait times have exploded while our staffing has shrunk; our income has diminished as our hours have been cut; and our health has declined as our workload has increased,” workers at the Clearwater store reportedly wrote in a letter to Starbucks CEO Brian Niccols when they first announced their union drive last August.

Schvartz, the Clearwater Starbucks worker recently fired, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that her termination was unexpected and “suspicious.” She had worked at Starbucks for three years, securing the job after graduating high school. She was appreciative of the higher entry-level pay, compared to other available jobs, and the flexibility it lent her as she studied to become a registered nurse. Her termination wasn’t anticipated. “All of my coworkers were so shocked and surprised,” she shared.

In a phone call on May 1, Schvartz admitted she had been disciplined by their manager for tardiness before, as recently as just a couple of months ago.

“But during that last meeting, she just reassured me that it didn’t mean I was getting fired anytime soon, and not to be worried,” Schvartz recalled. She was informed by management—again, months ago—that the next step, if she was tardy again, would be to come up with a behavioral or improvement plan.

“And then out of nowhere, she just terminated me,” the young barista shared.

Other coworkers, Schvartz added, have similarly been late to work, and yet this is the first time they are aware of where a barista has been fired over it. “Some of them hadn’t even been disciplined or talked to about it,” she said.

This isn’t the first time Starbucks has been accused of firing a worker over their union activity, or support for unionization. According to a union spokesperson, Starbucks Workers United alleges that roughly 300 workers have been fired for protected organizing activity since the grassroots organizing campaign at Starbucks first kicked off nationwide in 2021. And in a number of cases, their allegations have been validated by federal labor prosecutors.

A federal National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge last year, for instance, ordered Starbucks to reinstate a barista fired in Cleveland, whom Starbucks had claimed was not adequately performing his duties. After reviewing evidence, however, the judge determined that the worker, Kenneth Walker, was in fact singled out by management as a “troublemaker” amid his store’s union organizing efforts, and was unlawfully fired for his union activity.

It took two years for the ruling to come, ordering reinstatement plus back pay and benefits for Walker. “I’ve definitely had moments in the past couple years where I’ve just been like, ‘If I’d never done this, I’d be in a better place financially,’” Walker told Signal Cleveland. “But it was definitely worth it to help achieve this: Unions are spreading across Ohio and across the country.”

Starbucks has received more than 1,000 complaints of alleged violations of labor law since the organizing drive began, first up in Buffalo, New York, before spreading like wildfire elsewhere. Although both the union and Starbucks are currently in negotiations for a first union contract, to cover more than 540 unionized stores and counting, the parties have failed to reach an agreement on key economic proposals.

A group of workers, serving as delegates for the union, recently rejected a tentative agreement that included guaranteed raises of at least 2%—a far cry from what the union was shooting for. It also failed to offer any sort of guarantee for an immediate pay hike or improvements to health benefits sought by workers, according to Bloomberg News.

Schvartz, the Clearwater worker, said she was drawn to the idea of forming a union by coworker Ethan Best, one of the workers who spoke on her behalf at their march on the boss last week along with community allies.

“Before he came to me, I didn’t really know anything about being unionized,” she admitted. “I learned a lot, and then I became kind of an advocate in our store, along with Ethan for the union. And I became one of the people that our coworkers came to if they had questions or needed help.”

Starbucks told CL in a statement that Starbucks “respects the rights of our partners to freely associate and bargain collectively.” No Starbucks partner, they added, “has been or will be disciplined or separated for supporting, organizing, or otherwise engaging in lawful union activity.”

Even so, Schvartz said she is currently appealing her termination through the company and with the help of her union, Starbucks Workers United. They’re currently working on gathering evidence to prove that many of her coworkers have also been late to work without being disciplined. Then, they’ll take that to the union’s legal counsel to help put together a case.

“It was known to the manager and district manager that I was involved with the union,” Schvartz explained. “She knew I was very involved with the union, and she was the one that would send new baristas to me to answer their questions about the union. And when we went on strike, she saw me out there. So that’s why I think that was a big factor in getting terminated, was because I was so involved with the union and advocating for the union within our store.”

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This article appears in May 1-7, 2025.