Starbucks fires Buffalo worker who founded union campaign

Lexi Rizzo, shift supervisor for seven years at one of the first stores to unionize, says company claims she was fired for tardiness

Two days after Starbucks chairman and former CEO Howard Schultz was grilled during a Senate Committee hearing on the company’s response to union organizing at its stores, Starbucks fired three union organizers and disciplined another organizer in the Buffalo, New York area where the union campaign began.

Among those to lose their jobs was Lexi Rizzo, a shift supervisor for seven years in Buffalo, New York at one of the first stores to unionize and a leading founder of the union campaign. The union has characterized the actions as retaliation.