On Tuesday, a group of faith leaders and union workers marched on management at a Starbucks location in Westbury to deliver a letter and to demand the reinstatement of Anthony Price, a union leader who was recently fired. Nassau County legislator Siela Bynoe was also present.
Price was a union leader with Workers United, which has helped Starbucks locations in New York and New Jersey in recent years.
“One month ago, I was leading a strike,” Price, of Uniondale, said in a news release from the union. “About a week after that my manager was offering me a promotion. Today, I don’t have a job. My name is Anthony Price, I’m 22 and I live in uniondale. In almost two years of employment with this company I have never been so much as written up; but the moment I stand up for myself and my coworkers I’m met with immediate termination. No second chance, not even a warning, just a swift kick in the pants and ‘notice of separation’. I’m disgusted with this clear show of favoritism and anti-union rhetoric, but at the same time, I am not surprised.”
Price had led a protest as recently as November. Bynoe joined the workers to demand the reinstatement of Price.
“Not only do I serve this community, but I serve Anthony’s home community,” Bynoe said. “I am here to stand with Jobs with Justice and all the faith leaders here, to ask you, respectfully, to restore Anthony to his position. Anthony is a part of this community and was working in this Starbucks, which was a community benefit to make sure you had people from this community, serving this community. They have a right to organize and they have a right to be protected.”
Starbucks did not return a request for comment.
Up to five Starbucks locations on Long Island have voted to unionize in the past two years, and up to 363 locations in 41 states have also voted to unionize.
