TONAWANDA, N.Y. — Starbucks workers in Tonawanda walked out in protest for a second straight day after a shift supervisor was fired.
A video of the walkout had more than 1.5 million views on social media as of Saturday night.
Sam Amato worked with the company for 13 years. Starbucks Workers United said Amato was fired for helping to organize, and lead, the store's union.
The coffee giant says Amato was fired for closing the store lobby without permission from management.
The union claims Amato's terminal papers reference several so-called "coaching sessions," which they say never even happened.
Starbucks Workers United has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the company, saying this is the ninth union leader in Western New York to be fired.
Last month, the Starbucks employees at the Transit Commons location voted 11-1 in the union election, becoming the eighth store in Western New York to do so.
The union says workers at the Buffalo store have been trying to hold the election since last September but were delayed by union-busting tactics and other administrative hurdles.
“After many long months of union busting, shake-ups, unfair policy enforcement, and turnover, the likes of which we’ve never seen, it’s amazing to join so many other stores around the country in the fight to be treated fairly by the company we love," says Michael Sanabria, a worker at the Transits Common store.
The Elmwood and Genesee stores became the first stores to unionize in the United States last December.
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