(KERO) — Some Starbucks workers in California are on a 24-hour strike over what they say are unfair labor practices. More than 30 employees voted unanimously for the strike.
On Monday morning a half dozen workers gathered outside a Lakewood store successfully preventing it from opening.
The employees say Starbucks has “interfered with their right to organize without retaliation.” And they say the company has denied benefits to them because they’re in a union.
"There's like a pay raise they announced. They announced like better sick time accrual. They announced like mental health days. A partner app and they even put out all these flyers and had managers talk to us, and say like 'look at all these new wonderful things, you guys aren’t getting them.' They’re trying to punish us for unionizing. They’re trying to outcast us partners. They're trying to pretend we don’t exist," said barista Tyler Keeling.
Starbucks issued a statement saying "we respect our partners' right to engage in any legally protected activity or protest without retaliation."
Nationwide more than 220 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since late last year.
