Starbucks Worker Says She Was Fired for Being 2 Minutes Late: 'No Surprise'

A Starbucks worker said she was supposedly fired for being two minutes late to her shift, suggesting that reason was a cover-up.

"Today I was fired by Starbucks for being two minutes late," tweeted the employee on Saturday. "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."

The worker, identified by her first name Shea in a GoFundMe campaign and @AntleredD on Twitter, said she lives in Pittsburgh. As her post went viral, amassing 118,000 likes and over 10,000 retweets, she asked supporters to donate to a fund for Starbucks workers.

"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," she said in a follow-up tweet.

On her GoFundMe page, Shea said she was a shift supervisor and well-liked by her peers before she was suddenly terminated.

"I know everyone is struggling, but this unexpected event has truly thrown off my financial stability," she said. "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."

Starbucks told Newsweek on Monday that although Shea's Pittsburgh store had attempted to unionize in the past, those efforts were unsuccessful and her firing was unrelated to unionization.

"Any claims of anti-union retaliation are patently false as the store in question is not petitioned or unionized," said a Starbucks spokesperson. "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."

Since the first Starbucks location voted to unionize last December in Buffalo, New York, a total of 183 stores have unionized, according to Union Election Data.

Starbucks has battled numerous accusations of firing workers for exercising their right to form a union. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Buffalo is currently prosecuting the company for unlawfully firing employees. Its complaint contains over 200 violations of the National Labor Relations Act and details allegations that Starbucks interfered with, restrained or coerced workers who sought to unionize.

Earlier this year, the NLRB also requested the reinstatement of three Starbucks workers in Phoenix, claiming they were wrongfully terminated as retaliation for their union activity. One of the employees, Laila Dalton, drew national attention after she posted viral recordings of alleged harassment and unjust reprimands from her managers. However, a federal judge sided with the coffee company and declined to reinstate the workers in June, according to the Courthouse News Service.

Shea's tweet drew over a thousand comments, with many outraged readers saying her slight lateness was a brazen excuse.

"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," said one user.

"Those papers had been drawn up for a while," said another Twitter user. "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."

Newsweek reached out to Shea for comment.

Update 8/8/22, 3:55 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with a comment from Starbucks.