Starbucks Employees Petition Company To Stop Slashing Hours After Raising Wages

Famous Starbucks coffee house employees are petitioning against hour cuts.

Apparently some of these cuts came after wage increases.

Don't know if the wage hikes are part of falling sales, but somebody is getting chopped one way or the other.

It story says Starbucks uses computer generated models for business growth and labor needs.


Starbucks Employees Petition Company To Stop Slashing Hours After Raising Wages: Over 9000 Signatures

An online petition accusing Starbucks Corp of “extreme” cutbacks in work hours at its U.S. cafes, hurting both employee morale and customer service, has been signed by more than 9,000 people.

The world’s biggest coffee chain, trying to address cooling growth at its U.S. shops, recently introduced technology that allows customers to order and pay from mobile devices. That service aims to boost sales and reduce bottlenecks in stores.

Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz and other top brass have spoken with Jaime Prater, a Southern California barista and the online petition’s creator, the Seattle-based company said.

It declined to give details but Starbucks spokeswoman Jaime Riley said it is not uncommon for Schultz to reach out to members of its 160,000-strong U.S. workforce. She also said no nationwide cutback in labor hours or jobs was underway at Starbucks stores.

What people fail to realize - raise the wages for any other reason than revenue has went up will cause a business to slash overtime and regular hours. They have to balance it out.
And further down the line - employees laid off due to automation. (or off-shoring in other businesses)
Right or wrong , the way the system works
Careful what you wish for . You may just get it.

a reply to: xuenchen

Sad, I have a friend who is a struggling actor here get his hours slashed. Then they told him the Starbucks where he works will close next month.

These millennials think they deserve to get paid for working at Starbucks?


Ahhhh ahaha

They should all become electricians if they want good wages

a reply to: Gothmog

mobile.nytimes.com...

Profit is up 17%

Apparently the stockholders are more important than the people who actually perform the necessary work for the company to turn a profit

Failed system

Did any of these folks take any economics or accounting classes at all in life? Seriously...it's a business, not a day care.

That should happen here shortly as our NDP government is raising minimum wage as well. As well, the federal goverment is increasing Canada Pension Plan which is a payroll tax . Can't wait for the carbon taxes to roll out next...good times.

a reply to: onequestion

Considering the investors are the ones that provided the money to help create and expand the business, yes, they are important. Without them, there is no business, and no jobs for these workers. But I guess that is just one of those unimportant details that makes peoples heads hurt to think about.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: Gothmog

mobile.nytimes.com...

Profit is up 17%

Apparently the stockholders are more important than the people who actually perform the necessary work for the company to turn a profit

Failed system

That has always been. But you need to expand to CEO raises , Board of Directors , and in investors. And that is a fact. Not just "apparently" . And yet , right or wrong , it is the system of "corporate greed"

a reply to: Krakatoa

look here's the deal

the idea of the stock market is totally broken in the first place

ipo's and massive expansion is outdated and it's ruining the economy

We all know that the people who do the work are useless

I say, fire the people working at Starbucks and let the stockholders do all the actual work how about that

I mean the workers are worthless garbage anyway

a reply to: onequestion

Irrelevant to the discussion and your original post. How much money have these "workers" given the company from their own pocket to keep the business running? If they did, shouldn't they expect some sort of return on that investment? After all, breaking even in business is a failure.

a reply to: Krakatoa

They invest their time and effort which is far more valuable in human terms

The entire idea of the stock market is horrible

If companies want to expand let the employees and employers work together to expand the company

That is how the system should work

Abolish Wall Street and voodoo "capitalism"

a reply to: onequestion

In that case, you simply hire people that WANT to work. You offer a pay, and those that want to work will apply. If there is no profit in that area because people do not want to work for your offer, you close down and open somewhere else that is more receptive to your offer.

Business is in the business to make money. Accept that as a FACT. As I said, it is not a day care center.

a reply to: Krakatoa

People are working to make money in essence managing their own personal business

Don't like that to bad

Close your business and move to Chin were you can employee slaves

a reply to: xuenchen

I saw this coming a mile away. Also this is why I support local coffee joints over big corps. Better service, better quality, better everything.

a reply to: Krakatoa

Starbucks wants to make a certain profit off their goods. That's it. If they can't make their set amount of profit +pay their shareholder, they will cut hours and employees.

TextThe world’s biggest coffee chain, trying to address cooling growth at its U.S. shops

It isn't loss of sales it is "cooling growth". So the employees hours are cut because the gains aren't big enough. But are they ever big enough? Capitalist markets/centralized banking depend on never ending growth. To a thinking person never ending growth is an impossibility.

Just do what they tell you. Or form a union and use collective bargaining.

a reply to: onequestion

Then, take advantage of a free market. Perhaps these people should band together as a community, open their own competing coffee shop where they can pay the workers higher wages, and lower prices for the customers, all without any outside investors? Wanna bet how long they will stay in business?

a reply to: Krakatoa

They are banding together

Starbucks shouldn't and couldn't exist in a truly free market where Wall Street can't influence total dominance over entire markets

The idea of Wall Street is complete and utter garbage abolish it

It give wealthy people a serious advantage of the average man weather you like it or not

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: Krakatoa

look here's the deal

the idea of the stock market is totally broken in the first place

ipo's and massive expansion is outdated and it's ruining the economy

We all know that the people who do the work are useless

I say, fire the people working at Starbucks and let the stockholders do all the actual work how about that

I mean the workers are worthless garbage anyway

I like it, but lets take it a step further. How about the workers still work the same full time hours but only get paid what the company says is fair. I'm sure Starbucks would be fair.

I mean if growth is starting to cool well it's the little guys fault. (stupid little guy)

a reply to: seasonal

Workers are useless garbage

I recommend enslaving them totally

Here's my solution, if they aren't born into a family that can afford to start them a business or find an angel investor enslave them for five years and then sacrifice their soul to satan

Losers