On behalf of all partners working in corporately owned and run stores, what we are payed as starting and tenured employees is not enough to sustain ourselves, and survive the rising costs of living in this great country of ours.
It is our belief that raising everyone to a base level of 10.00 an hour for starting and currently employed partners goes far to ensure a quality of life that will benefit everyone, especially our customers in the long term. When your employees are doing well, your company is doing well.
Giant retailers like Costco and Apple know how important it is to pay their workers a salary that's worth their efforts. Starbucks have led the way in so many areas, but they drag far behind in terms of employee pay. Many people start off at around 8.35 an hour. In 2014, that's unthinkable.
Why is this important?
This is important because it's fair. Starbucks is making record profits. Earnings reports has profits the highest they have ever been (http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexadavis/2014/07/24/starbucks-sizzling-profits-get-cool-reception/)
In years past, employees would be granted a personal day every quarter as well as sick time being available. After the financial crisis, personal and sick days went away, never to return. If partners get sick, they have to use their precious vacation time to make up the difference. The speed at which employees accrue vacation time was also cut down, so it takes longer to make enough to cover one day. Starbucks should and can do better.
Starbucks Baristas operate their stores. It's non management that is responsible for creating that coveted third place environment (the space between home and work) that's so essential and so important to our loyal and wonderful customers. The larger percentage of Starbucks employees struggle to live from week to week. As amazing as the entire benefits package is, free coffee doesn't pay the bills. Free stock won't put gas in our car. Free tuition doesn't ensure a quality of life where many of us scrape by from week to week, just to afford food and gas.
How it will be delivered
We will email the signatures to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz directly.