In The News

By Abraham Kenmore, Augusta Chronicle

A year ago, Jaysin Saxton was a Starbucks shift supervisor, leading the union organizing at the Augusta store at 228 Robert C Daniel Jr. Parkway, the first store in the state to unionize. Last week, Saxton, who was fired for his actions during a union protest, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions in Washington, D.C.

"We faced many failed and broken systems working at Starbucks when we began to organize a union," Saxton testified. "We saw Starbucks had failed at honoring its stated mission values, so we chose to live up to them in challenging the status quo. In late 2021, when we started to hear about Starbucks workers in Buffalo (New York) organizing a union, I thought, 'We need this, too.'"

The committee hearing garnered attention for a lengthy quizzing of former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz by legislators. But Saxton and another organizer, Maggie Carter from Knoxville, also testified along with lawyers and researchers after Schultz's testimony.

"It was intense, but it was exciting," Saxton said of the experience. "The best part about it all was getting to watch Howard Schultz lie consistently to the senators."

Starbucks has consistently denied that Saxton or any other workers were let go because of joining a union, or that Schultz lied in his testimony.

"Starbucks policy strictly prohibits any retaliatory behavior directed toward partners who are interested in a union," wrote Starbucks spokesperson Andrew Trull in an email. He added "Starbucks maintains that Saxton was separated for clear violations of our lawful partner policies — not in retaliation for their participation in or support of any concerted union activity."

Saxton spoke to the committee about finding work at Starbucks after leaving the U.S. Coast Guard with a diagnosis of osteoarthritis. At Starbucks he met his wife, and they now have a 2-year-old daughter, Ava. Saxton said he enjoyed helping customers and coworkers, but after the union vote, the company cracked down, including firing seven union members before he was fired.

Saxton has an unfair labor practice charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board. He is contesting a subpoena in the case from Starbucks for text messages between himself and union organizers.

Getting fired did not stop Saxton down from organizing and he has travelled to rally with other Starbucks workers. Saxton said he was contacted a week before the hearing about possibly testifying and jumped at the chance.

"I got to meet a lot of really cool workers, got to tell my story, and got to finally be face-to-face with Howard Schultz and Mellody Hobson," the chair of the Starbucks board, Saxton said.

Following the hearing, Saxton said he would like to see Congress take up the PRO Act, legislation that unions say would make labor organizing more easy. Rep. Rick Allen, R-Augusta, introduced legislation last year designed as a sort of anti-PRO act, neither has passed.

"Hopefully, we can get some more instances of, you know, our government holding these corporations, the CEOs, these billionaires to account," he said. "Otherwise, it's just got to be the same power dynamic and people feeling as though, you know, it's all pointless, and we don't want that."