A Starbucks worker who helped lead the union drive on the chain's first unionized retailer within the nation has reportedly been fired.

"At present, Cassie Fleischer was fired -- on the identical day the story profiling her organizing contributions ran within the print Washington Submit," SBWorkersUnited, a Twitter account representing Starbucks staff working to unionize, stated in a tweet.

Fleischer labored on the Elmwood Avenue location in Buffalo, New York, which grew to become the primary of the espresso large's 9,000 corporate-owned shops to unionize after a December 2021 vote.

In a Fb put up on Sunday, Fleischer stated she was terminated by Starbucks after she diminished her accessible working hours upon securing one other job.

"Little did I do know, yesterday was my final shift at Starbucks," Fleischer stated.

"I'm not being scheduled nor am I allowed to select up any shifts, and as of as we speak I'm successfully terminated from the corporate, on the first unionized company location within the nation."

She stated she beloved the job and her colleagues however had secured a brand new position that "offers me with the 40 hours every week that I desperately want to take care of a life in Buffalo."

Starbucks "has at all times been an organization that prides itself in its flexibility, and as such its allowance to be a enjoyable second job to complement an individual's full time job," Fleischer added.

"After I lower my availability again to mirror the brand new job, I used to be informed I 'not met the wants of enterprise' and would face termination if I did not open my availability again up. With the brand new job, I could not, so I used to be informed there was nowhere to go from right here in addition to termination."

Fleischer added that what has occurred to her additional highlights the necessity for a union to signify staff.

"As a pacesetter within the union's organizing and negotiations committees, and having helped arrange the strike over covid-19 security, I do know one thing has modified," Fleischer wrote, referring to a January stoppage by six staff on the Elmwood Avenue retailer over what they stated had been "unsafe" circumstances resulting from COVID-19.

Cassie Fleischer
Cassie Fleischer (pictured) stated she was terminated by Starbucks after she reduce on her availability after securing a full-time job elsewhere.Fb/Cassie Fleischer

"This isn't the corporate I signed on to in 2017, and this simply additional proves that we'd like a union in our shops. Starbucks is making an enormous mistake and I might be spending this newfound time supporting my companions by the union in any means I can."

A number of leaders of the unionizing effort in Buffalo had been lately warned that they might be fired within the coming weeks resulting from coverage shifts from Starbucks' administration, Extra Good Union, a nonprofit information group centered on labor rights, reported final week.

Sources informed the group that staff in a number of Buffalo shops, together with the Elmwood Avenue location, had been informed that any worker working lower than 20 hours every week might be terminated.

It comes after Starbucks fired a number of staff who had been main the trouble to unionize at a Memphis retailer, which an organization spokesperson stated was resulting from violations of insurance policies.

Starbucks and Fleischer have been contacted for remark.

In a letter to Starbucks staff, known as companions, after the Elmwood Avenue retailer voted to unionize in December, Starbucks Govt Vice President Rossann Williams stated: "Our power is our relationships between all of us as companions, with our prospects and with the communities we serve."

"From the start, we have been clear in our perception that we don't want a union between us as companions, and that conviction has not modified. Nevertheless, we've got additionally stated that we respect the authorized course of. This implies we are going to discount in good religion with the union that represents companions within the one Buffalo retailer that voted in favor of union illustration," she stated.

Starbucks in Buffalo
A common view of the Starbucks retailer on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, New York, December 9, 2021.Eleonore Sens/AFP through Getty Pictures

Replace 2/21/22, 9:49 a.m. ET: This text has been up to date so as to add an image.