This story has been updated
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Starbucks Workers United, the organizing group behind the effort to unionize employees at six local stores, says a key person in their work has been fired – though Starbucks disputes that characterization of her departure, saying the employee had submitted her resignation.
The group claimed on Twitter that a whistleblower named Brittany had been fired “for exposing Starbucks’ anti-union campaign to partners in Buffalo.” They asked for donations to support Brittany, who they said is battling leukemia.
Brittany, whose last name was not listed, is a 28-year-old manager of a Starbucks cafe in Arizona. The organizing group says she “has evidence of Starbucks’ union busting activities.”
Starbucks Workers United has created a GoFundMe campaign for Brittany, in an effort to raise $10,000. More than $8,000 has been raised.
“[Brittany] reached out to the workers in Buffalo when she learned the company was sending managers and executives from around the country to Buffalo with the explicit purpose of defeating the union effort,” the GoFundMe’s description reads. “Brittany stepped forward as a whistleblower to give testimony to the National Labor Relations Board to support the union’s charges of unfair labor practices at Starbucks because she did not want herself or her co-workers to be put in a position of violating Buffalo Starbucks partners’ right to organize.”
They say that Brittany had been planning to leave the company by the...
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