A person claiming to be a Starbucks manager is being called a whistleblower after allegedly “exposing” the company’s union-busting tactics in a viral video.
The video was originally posted to Twitter by user @ThrowawaySiren, which appears to be a burner account, on April 3.
“I was a Store Manager in the Atlanta area and this video is from our ‘Labor Training’ we had before I left the company. Aka Union busting training,” the tweet reads.
“If you know with some degree of certainty that those prospective partners would vote against the union, then you might want to accelerate the onboarding process,” a person off-camera says.
The account tagged @SBWorkersUnited, an account run by Starbucks partners working to unionize stores, which eventually reposted the clip to its popular TikTok account earlier in the week.
“Thanks to our brave whistleblower for posting on Twitter—we see & appreciate you)!” the account wrote in the caption.
The alleged comments come from “a very highly paid union busting consultant,” the TikTok account alleged in the comments section of the TikTok. The video amassed over 100,000 views on TikTok.
“Part of the petition process is identifying who’s eligible to vote,” the alleged consultant says in the video. “And from a company perspective, we want as many people who we are confident would vote against the union, we want those folks eligible to vote.”
The video comes as Starbucks is gearing up for a union fight. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said in a town hall earlier in the week that companies like Starbucks are “being assaulted in many ways by the threat of unionization” and that the SBWorkersUnited union is “an outside organization trying to take our people.”
Starbucks now has 13 unionized locations, according to the union, and more than 150 others have petitioned for unionization.
Comments on the TikTok were supportive of the workers unionizing.
“we’re all paying attention and we see what you’re doing, but you’re fighting a losing battle. Go partners, unionize,” one commenter wrote.
“@starbucks – this you? looks like *I* run on Dunkin’ now,” another said.
“I’m a Dunkin’ person now,” a third said.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Starbucks and the @SBWorkersUnited union for comment.
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