Workers at a Minneapolis Starbucks strike for second day

Starbucks workers picketed Monday outside a south Minneapolis location, carrying signs that read "Fair Wages for Fair Work" and using a megaphone to call out, "We are the workers, the mighty, mighty workers."

Many drivers honked as they passed the closed store at 4712 Cedar Av., prompting cries of "we love you" from the picketers.

"It's really incredible to have people support us," said Emily Mahoney, a shift supervisor. "It means so much."

About 15 workers picketed the location on Sunday and Monday. They want Starbucks to come to the bargaining table to negotiate better wages and improved schedules.

Mahoney said she also would like to see more staff hired after cuts at the location.

"We know the greatest power the workers have is their power to withhold labor," said Esau Chavez, an organizer with the Chicago and Midwest Joint Board of Workers United. "It really shows that workers are willing to stand up and fight. It's not an empty threat."

Starbucks said: "We respect our partners' right to engage in any legally protected activity or protest without retaliation."

The company also said: "At stores where workers have union representation, federal law requires good-faith collective bargaining over wages, benefits and working conditions, which prohibits Starbucks from making or announcing unilateral changes."

A Starbucks spokeswoman said there is no timeline set for collective bargaining.

The workers at the Cedar Avenue location said they will return to work on Tuesday.

Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, said in April that a Starbucks on Snelling Avenue near Stanford Avenue in St. Paul was the first in Minnesota to unionize. There are now four unionized stores in the Twin Cities. The Cedar Avenue location in Minneapolis unionized in May.

Mahoney, who makes $20 an hour and receives health insurance from Starbucks, said she feels lucky to have a fiancé to cover rent.

"I see my coworkers struggling to pay rent and buy groceries," she said.

While the 26-year-old likes her job, especially seeing regulars at the store where she's worked for two years, she has tried with no luck to find a higher-paying job.

Mahoney feels like she's drowning under her $20,000 in student loans for her degree in music business.

"In my defense, I was 18 years old when I chose that degree," she said.

Mahoney said she knows many young adults struggling with even greater debt.

"Most of us have college degrees," she said. "This is where we've ended up."