Store Walkout Over Firing of Starbucks Union Organizer Racks Up 20 Million Views on TikTok

A clip of New York Starbucks workers walking off the job to protest the firing of a fellow employee believed to have been for union organizing has now over 20 million views on the popular video platform TikTok, bringing greater public visibility to the coffee giant’s aggressive attempts to beat back a movement that has spread nationwide.

Starbucks Buffalo-area store fired Sam Amato last week after he worked there for more than 13 years. The location, whose employees voted to unionize in March, has been closed since the Friday walkout as workers strike to demand Amato’s reinstatement.

Michael Sainato reported for The Guardian on Thursday that months after they voted to unionize, “Amato and his co-workers were transferred to different stores while their own store underwent remodeling, where he said workers were heavily scrutinized by the store manager through disciplinary actions and write-ups.”

While Starbucks claims that they terminated Amato for closing the store’s lobby without permission, Starbucks Workers United says that’s a ruse to disguise the deliberate firing of a union leader. Amato says he didn’t make the decision to close the lobby. He maintains that the store fired him because he was a union leader at his store.

In South Carolina, a Starbucks store manager recently went as far as accusing unionized workers of “kidnapping and assault” after they laid out a list of demands during a meeting.

According to a tally by More Perfect Union, a progressive media outlet, “Starbucks has now illegally fired at least 70 pro-union workers since February.”

Originally published at Commondreams.org.