Labor activists including workers and union organizers from Starbucks, Amazon and Trader Joes rallied on Labor Day in front of the New York City residences of Howard Schultz and Jeff Bezos.
All three companies have resisted a recent wave of unionization among their employees.
Activists and union supporters gathered outside the Greenwich Village home of Schultz, interim CEO of Starbucks, before marching up Fifth Avenue to the penthouse of Bezos, Amazons founder and executive chairman .
Protesters also inflated a 12-foot-tall “Scabby the Rat,” a familiar symbol of labor disputes on the streets of New York, in front of Bezos building.
A video shared by Twitter user @Lfelizleon shows marchers holding a sign demanding that Amazon recognize the recently formed Amazon Labor Union. “The word strike came up often,” he tweeted alongside the video.
In April, a warehouse on Staten Island became the first Amazon facility to unionize, in a campaign led by Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls, who was previously fired for protesting working conditions.
Meanwhile, more than 200 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize, but the company has fired organizers and withheld benefits from unionized locations. The National Labor Relations Board recently ordered Starbucks to reinstate the fired workers.
