All stores should close and pay employees impacted by extreme weather

My name is Amber and I’m a Starbucks Barista in Chicago, Illinois. When the polar vortex hit, my coworkers raised concerns about getting to work safely. Our store closed thankfully but we went without pay. Rent, groceries, and gas costs don’t go away – no matter how cold it gets!

Big corporations like Starbucks can afford to pay us when they shut down stores because of the weather. Our CEO still gets paid when it snows, why can’t the rest of the employees get paid too?

We’re already underpaid for the work we do. Worrying about weather-related closures of our stores – and not being paid for the shifts we miss – adds more stress while we already live paycheck to paycheck. Many people like me have been forced to face unhealthy and unsafe weather conditions to get to work, use our sick-time if it is impossible to get there, or miss out on pay when our stores are closed.

The cold front that has moved through the Midwest has had a dramatic economic impact on our communities. No one has felt that impact more than the people on the front lines at some of the largest corporations like Starbucks, Walmart, Amazon, and Target. While the cold continues to move through our area, we are missing out on days and in some cases a full week of pay.

After other natural disasters around the country, like hurricanes or floods, Starbucks and other big employers have provided some disaster relief pay to employees.

We're calling on our corporations to:

1) Close in unsafe weather conditions – especially when a state of emergency has been declared.

2) Publicly commit to pay regularly scheduled hourly employees when businesses close.

3) Provide retroactive pay and reimbursement of sick time used by employees who have missed out on shifts during the state of emergency