Mikaela West recently had to cut back on the amount of groceries she can buy in order to afford a dentist visit to fix a hole in her tooth.
And even when she was able to save the money for the procedure, the 24-year-old Starbucks barista said she found it difficult to get the time she needed for the dentist visit approved by management at work. She was finally able to schedule it recently, but only because she’s been on strike with about 20 of her coworkers at the Oviedo store.
“It’s very hard [to get time off from work], especially here at our store. A lot of people get denied time off to go to the doctor,” she said as honks in response to the picket line on the corner of East Mitchell Hammock Road and City Plaza Way punctuated the sound of passing cars. “We are told ‘We cannot accommodate your absence’, even if it’s something that was put in two months, three months in advance.”
The Oviedo store — one of two unionized Starbucks locations in Central Florida of the 640 total nationwide, according to Starbucks Workers United — joined the five-week nationwide strike on Thursday, Dec. 11. The overall strike started on Nov. 13 after contract negotiations stalled…