A San Diego Starbucks supervisor is trying to boot the union from his store after claiming workers were shut out of key decisions — including an open-ended Christmas strike leaving employees scrambling for hours.
Joe Emmenegger, 29, a shift supervisor, told the California Post that he had gathered signatures from roughly 64% of the approximately 16 to 18 employees at his Starbucks to force a vote on whether to disband the union.
The shift supervisor, who declined to identify the San Diego-area store, claimed Starbucks Workers United deliberately excluded supervisors such as him from discussions despite their being part of the bargaining unit.
“It just didn’t sit well with me, seeing as you know it’s a group that’s positively trying to help and kind of be there for the worker, but at the same time, you’re kind of being excluded and left in the dark,” he said in an interview.
Emmenegger, a lifelong San Diego-area resident, said he was initially neutral on unions. He had heard of Starbucks Workers United through online posts and videos but had no interaction with the union until he joined the already-unionized store in 2024.
He said he was never formally told he was part of the bargaining unit, only discovering it himself after doing his own research. He claimed union discussions remained exclusionary.
“It was brought to my attention that people were told not to talk to myself, other people,” Emmenegger said.
“I never really understood why there was this kind of exclusion of the supervisor team.”
But Emmenegger said the tipping point came during Starbucks Workers United’s nationwide open-ended strike late last year, when he claimed the decision to walk out was made without input from him or other workers.
“All of our hours evaporated. Being a week-and-half before Christmas, we had co-workers who have families, have young children,” Emmenegger said.
“It was definitely a very stressful moment to figure out, ‘Okay I may not be having a job.’”
Starbucks Workers United launched its open-ended unfair labor practice strike on Nov. 13, 2025, as part of its long-running battle with the coffee giant over a first national framework for union contracts.
Emmenegger stressed that he is not opposed to unions or workers exercising their right to strike.
“Personally, I think unions can be a lot of good when applied correctly,” he said. “It’s just when it’s done improperly and the practices are wrong, that’s when I have a problem with it.”
Shortly after the strike, Emmenegger circulated a petition seeking to remove the union from his store.
He said he secured signatures from about 64% of the roughly 16 to 18 employees working there at the time.
The petition is now pending before the National Labor Relations Board, according to Emmenegger.
He said he has faced little opposition from his own coworkers but claimed labor activists who joined the strike called him and others “scabs.”
Emmenegger’s push comes as he joins a new national coalition of restaurant, retail and service workers launched Monday that says it is “dedicated to union transparency and accountability.”
The initiative is backed by the Center for Union Facts, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that campaigns against union practices and advocates greater financial transparency and accountability for organized labor.
Seventy-one percent of Americans approve of labor unions, according to a Gallup poll released Sept. 1 — tying the recent high recorded in 2022. Gallup also found a record 47% of Americans want unions to have more influence.
The Center for Union Facts, however, cited its own survey that it said found union favorability fell to 61% after respondents were given information about corruption scandals involving union officials and other controversies.
“It’s time to set the record straight on labor unions that talk a big game but deliver little for workers. We hope these stories encourage others to speak up about what it’s really like to deal with unions,” Charlyce Bozzello, communications director at the Center for Union Facts, said to The Post.
The organization also highlighted accounts from workers in other states who said they had experienced problems with their unions.
Starbucks Workers United has meanwhile spent more than two years trying to secure a contract with Starbucks after national collective bargaining talks began in February 2024.
The union has staged strikes and other protests during the dispute and has more recently urged consumers to boycott Starbucks as it seeks to pressure the company into reaching an agreement.
The Post reached out to Starbucks Workers United for comment.