“Starcups Workers Unite!” — Students Learn Their Workplace Rights

Memphis, February 26, 2022. Courtesy of photographer Andrea Morales

By Nicolle Fefferman

Students put on their props — ties, union stickers, lanyards, name tags. The room was full of laughter and last-minute reminders. The town hall meeting was about to begin, and groups were settling in to discuss the unit’s central question: Should the Starcups workers at Store 867 vote to be a union?

It was day three at the Los Angeles area Gardena High School in Mr. Martinez’s Law and Society class. Jazmin Rivera and Emely Rauda from the UCLA Labor Center and I had worked with students to prepare them for a simulation of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) union election based on the Starbucks Workers United organizing over the last few years.

The power of this role play comes from the lived realities of young workers. One of the students in the room was a Starbucks employee at a very busy location close to Los Angeles International Airport. Every single student in the room had working adults at home. These students would be getting jobs sooner rather than later and the conversations we were having could not be more relevant. Students seemed eager to engage around the daily experiences of individuals and groups in our economy. We gave students the space and support to practice talking about workplace issues with co-workers, public servants, employers, and community members.

Over the last few years Starbucks workers have led an organizing movement that started in Buffalo, New York. There are now more than 500 unionized Starbucks stores across the nation. As with almost all workers attempting to unionize, Starbucks workers faced many obstacles in their fight to win their union and bargain a first contract. Workers have had their hours cut and been fired as punishment for unionizing. A June 2024 Supreme Court ruling makes it even harder for NLRB agents to help workers enforce their rights in the face of union busting tactics. Despite all this, Starbucks employees are among the more notable groups of the newest generation of workers, alongside auto workers in the South, fighting to utilize their power to improve wages, benefits, and working conditions.

Nicolle Fefferman is the director of the Young Workers Education Project, a Zinn Education Project 2024–2026 Prentiss Charney Fellow, and a former high school teacher. Both of Nicolle’s children are LAUSD students and she continues to support their schools as an activist with Parents Supporting Teachers. 

This lesson and accompanying article is in the Winter 2024–2025 issue of Rethinking Schools. Subscribe to the Rethinking Schools magazine today.