The multinational coffeehouse chain Starbucks fired Alexis Rizzo, the employee who started the Starbucks Workers United union campaign.
Alexis Rizzo has been working as a shift supervisor at Starbucks for the past 7 years and acted as the leader at the New York Genesee St. store in Buffalo. This store was among the two stores in the nation to first win the united union campaign.
The termination of Rizzo comes shortly after the coffee giant’s former Chief Executive Officer testified before the court on the accusations that the company made attempts to bust workers’ unions. The testimony took place on Wednesday in the U.S. Senate building on Capitol Hill.
Howard Schultz, the previous CEO of Starbucks testified that he nor the company had broken any law.
25-year-old Rizzo responded regarding the firing that, she was heartbroken. She added that it was not just a job for her and it was more like a family for her. Rizzo was talking in an interview and mentioned that she felt like she had lost everything.
She continued that she has been working at Starbucks since she was 17 years old and it was like her entire support system. Rizzo was sure that her employers knew that fact too, that was what the job and the place meant for her.
The reason because of she was fired was that, according to what her employees told her, she was coming late to the coffee shop and not performing her duties properly.
Her senior employees pointed out that she has been late on a total of four occasions. Rizzo defended herself that on two out of these four occasions, she was only one minute late. The store managers let her know about the termination after she completed working her shift on Friday. These are the details that were available from Rizzo’s interview.
As per the information from Starbucks, the company stated that Alexis Rizzo was a latecomer and she had missed above four hours when the total of four occasions in which she was late was combined. The company added that Rizzo has frequently produced write-ups for being late and her actions were affecting the running of the store.
Rachel Wall, the Director of Corporate Communications at Starbucks acted as a spokesperson for the company and said that the company has not been unfair to Rizzo.
She stated that the separations at the company have been the result of it following clear policy violations. According to her, in the case of Rizzo, multiple attendance violations that were impacting other baristas at the store have happened.
Wall was talking in an interview with a news channel and provided a statement on behalf of the company. She said that the company takes into consideration and appreciates the fact the partners at Genesee St. were able to provide the Starbucks experience to each other and to the customers that morning, the morning after the firing. The statement continued that all the company stores in the area will continue to serve customers without any kind of interruptions throughout the weekend.
The Starbucks Workers United posted a tweet on Saturday, about Rizzo’s termination. The official account of the union on its GoFundMe page wrote that the termination was retaliation at its worst.
Alexis Rizzo mentioned that she thinks that her firing comes in relation to the recent Senate hearing in which the ex-CEO of Starbucks testified about union busting and attempts for the same.
What she said was that she does not think it was just a coincidence that her termination comes just after the court hearing. She commented that it was not accidental that the firing came two days after Howard Schultz, the former CEO had his ego bruised in the court the way that he did which made him lash out at the Buffalo incidents.
Rizzo also said that Starbucks fired two other employees too, on Friday. Despite the fact she was still recovering from the shock of what had just happened, what she plans is to fight back against the corporate for justice and her job.
She quoted that she was going to fight for her job back and to get reinstated. She added that she will work with the union and will continue to fight to make things right.
The National Labor Relations Board released a report that says around 300 Starbucks stores have voted to start a union. The Starbucks Workers United Union has registered more than 500 complaints accusing Starbucks of conducting unfair legal practices which come as illegal under the regulations of the federal labor board. The court, however, received evidence that the company has broken federal labor law a total of 130 times.
Starbucks has also registered complaints against the union, with approximately 100 complaints to be estimated.
Read More: Shohei Ohtani Wife: Who Is Kamalani Dung?
