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Pittsburgh Starbucks employee who supports unions FIRED 'for being two minutes late'

'Surely it will come as no surprise that I have been a union supporter and involved in organizing,' the employee tweeted

A Starbucks employee has claimed she was dismissed from work "for being two minutes late", implying that the excuse given to her for the termination was a facade. The employee, identified as Shea, said she was fired as has "been a union supporter and involved in organizing."
 
On Saturday, August 6, user @AntleredD tweeted: "Today I was fired by Starbucks for being two minutes late. They served me separation papers while I was trying to open the store. Surely it will come as no surprise that I have been a union supporter and involved in organizing."

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The employee claimed to reside in Pittsburgh and used her first name, Shea, in a GoFundMe campaign. She urged her followers to contribute to the fundraiser for Starbucks employees as her tweet gained 118,000 likes and more than 10,000 retweets.
 
In a subsequent tweet, Shea said, "There are many other people in Pittsburgh who have been fired recently, and the most impactful thing that you can do for all of us is donate to our solidarity fund."

"I know everyone is struggling, but this unexpected event has truly thrown off my financial stability. It may affect my ability to access medical care that I need for my transition. I also have a cat that I am responsible for, in addition to bills we all have, such as rent, utilities, and groceries," she added.
 
Before being abruptly fired, Shea claimed on her GoFundMe profile that she worked as a shift supervisor and had a good rapport with her co-workers. Even though Shea's Pittsburgh outlet previously sought to form a union, Starbucks informed Newsweek on August 8 that the attempts had been ineffective and also that Shea's termination had nothing to do with unionization.
 
A Starbucks representative said, "Any claims of anti-union retaliation are patently false as the store in question is not petitioned or unionized. A partner's interest in a union does not exempt them from our standards. We have always held and we will continue to enforce our policies consistently for all partners."
 
According to Union Election Data, 183 outlets of the franchise have formed unions after the original Starbucks branch in Buffalo, New York, decided to unionize last December. Starbucks has fought off several allegations that it fired employees for leveraging their entitlement to organize a union. The corporation is now being sued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Buffalo for wrongful termination of workers. The lawsuit recounts charges that Starbucks intervened with, hindered, and forced employees who wanted to organize a union and lists more than 200 alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act.
 
The NLRB also asked for the restoration of three Starbucks employees in Phoenix earlier this year, alleging that their illegal dismissal was a result of their union activities. Laila Dalton, one of the workers, gained widespread recognition after she shared viral videos of alleged abuse and unfair management reprimands. According to the Courthouse News Service, a federal court agreed with Starbucks in June and rejected the employees' requests to be reinstated.
 
Over a thousand people commented on Shea's tweet, with many irate users accusing Starbucks of using her small tardiness as a justification to fire her. One user said, "If they had termination papers ready (which take time to get approved through HR in big companies), they had them already waiting and were looking for an excuse."
 
Another commented, "Those papers had been drawn up for a while. They were just waiting for her to be a minute late. They probably also had a set for if she touched her face or miscounted some change. They were just waiting to put in the date."