Draft:Joe Thompson (union organizer)

Joe Thompson Campaign Photo in 2023

Joseph Michael Robert Thompson II, (they/them) (born March 29, 2003) is an Gay & Non-Binary American union organizer, Democratic Party activist, and Gen-Z community organizer. Thompson successfully organized the first Starbucks union in California in May of 2022. Thompson also unsuccessfully ran for the California State Assembly in 2022 and Santa Cruz City Council in March 2024 but was elected to serve on the Santa Cruz County Central Committee, the local arm of the California Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee.

Born in Carmichael, California, Thompson moved with their family to Lincoln, California where they spent most of their childhood until they moved to Argyle, Texas. Thompson participated in Lincoln-Douglas debate, Congressional Debate, and Extemporaneous Speaking at Argyle High School. Thompson later returned to California to attend the University of California, Santa Cruz where they graduated in June 2024 with a Bachelors Degree in Politics.

Thompson is currently the Political Director for the Monterey/Santa Cruz Building and Construction Trades Council.

As of November 2024, Thompson serves as a Board Member for the Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee. Thompson also serves as an executive committee member for the Sierra Club Ventana Chapter.

Union Organizing

Shortly after arriving in Santa Cruz, Thompson began organizing. In January of 2022, Thompson took the campaign public by posting a letter addressed to then Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson. In the letter a group of 13 former and current workers at the Santa Cruz store said they had a “moral obligation to organize”. Thompson initiated and lead the organizing efforts in the Santa Cruz area. Thompson stated their reasoning for organizing was simply "the Santa Cruz store experiences a high rate of incidents of harassment, indecent exposure and threats of violence, and employees don’t feel supported by management or corporate executives."

On February 18th, Thompson led a rally with California Federation of Teachers labor leader Daniel Dodge Sr., Monterey Bay Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO) Executive Director Cesar Lara, Santa Cruz City Council Members Sandy Brown and Justin Cummings, among other union leaders and supporters.

Thompson testified at an National Labor Relations Board Hearing in late February after Starbucks attempted to block the union election, calling for a district-wide election instead of individual stores.

On the weekend of March 5th and 6th, Thompson experienced two incidents at the Santa Cruz Starbucks. Thompson was threatened by a customer who had been previously banned, and helped assist another customer showing signs of stab wounds.

Thompson appeared in a video by The Washington Post on April 1, 2022. Thompson spoke about how the support for unions among young people is at an all-time high. In the video Thompson states, "Having democracy in the workplace is going to be a huge factor that influences Gen Z and the politics that are gonna be pushing us to further unionize other stores."

On April 19th, the NLRB began mailing ballots to 61 eligible voting members (including Thompson) working at the Santa Cruz Starbucks locations that filed to unionize after a stipulated agreement was reached between Workers United and Starbucks.

On May 11th, 2022, both Santa Cruz Starbucks locations voted overwhelming to unionize. Thompson said to the LA Times, "Young people are leading the fight to unionize their workplaces because our future is predicated on building working-class power."

After the union won their election, the NLRB filed a formal complaint against Starbucks for harassing and threatening unionizing workers in Santa Cruz. Thompson, says workers were reprimanded for dress code while wearing multiple union buttons, which Starbucks claims is against company policy. The NLRB stated the dress code is against federal law, which protects the right of employees to organize a union and express that support. “The significance of this charge says, ‘You need to get rid of this dress code,’” Thompson says. “And to tell workers they have the right to freely organize their workplaces.”

In May of 2022, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said federal labor law prohibits the company from automatically implementing increased wages and benefits at unionized stores. Thompson, said the announcement confused and upset workers — and, for many, underscored the need for a union. “They’re literally threatening to improve the material conditions at non-union stores,” Thompson said. “But they can take those benefits away at any point. If we have our contract, they can’t take those things away.”

From August 2023 to February 2024, Thompson worked for Service Employees International Union Local 1021 as a union organizer, working on the Starbucks campaign throughout Northern California.

In July 2024, Thompson was hired on as the political director for the Monterey/Santa Cruz Building and Construction Trades Council, an American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations affiliate.

In October of 2024, the NLRB ruled in favor of Thompson and their co-workers Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge. In the ruling Administrative Law Judge Lisa D. Ross ruled:

"[Starbucks] committed unfair labor practices in violation of Section 8(a)(1) of the Act by:

1. Increasing its supervision of and/or soliciting and remedying grievances from its employees in response to employees’ union activity;
2. Denying off-duty employees access to [Starbucks]’s back room area because they supported the Union;
3. Threatening employees with unspecified reprisals, including, the loss of medical and other benefits and loss of the ability to transfer to other retail stores because employees supported the Union; and
4. Discriminatorily enforcing its pin and/or apron policies in response to employees’ union activity.

The unfair labor practices committed by [Starbucks] affect commerce within the meaning of Sections 2(6) and (7) of the Act."

Read the full ruling, provided by Thompson via Instagram here.

California State Assembly Campaign

Thompson filed their initial paperwork to run for the State Assembly on March 14th, 2022. Thompson stated that they are excited to use the support and enthusiasm of the Starbucks Union push to be a leader in the labor movement. A month before the election was held, a union election at the Starbucks Store Thompson organized, voted to unionize and they said, "We did it! It’s amazing, We took on a billion-dollar corporation and won. This is a huge win for all workers." Thompson hoped this news, would help promote their assembly campaign.

Thompson openly criticized State Senator John Laird and Equality California for not endorsing the only LGBTQ+ candidate in the race.

The lack of support they have received from elected leaders for the union effort partly prompted Thompson to seek the Assembly seat.

"Only a handful of elected officials, I would say, are true labor allies. I definitely think that needs to change," said Thompson. "As someone who is nonbinary, gay, and young, we need someone who is going to shake up the political landscape."

Thompson ran their campaign on championing working-class values and being inspired by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. All of Thompson's opponents in the race were majorly self-funded and Gail Pellerin and Rob Rennie loaned over $100,000 to their campaigns. Thompson reported raising less than $20,000.

Thompson pointed out that their opponents owned second homes, while the majority of residents are renters. Santa Cruz also has the highest homelessness rate of any US city.

"Obviously, as a barista, I don't make anywhere close to that amount of money," they joked. "I think it's pretty clear that we need elected officials who actually represent us."

Thompson was defeated in the primary, garnering about 10% of the vote.

Thompson later worked for Gail Pellerin during the general election as the Field Director for her State Assembly campaign.

Santa Cruz City Council Campaign

Thompson announced their City Council campaign on July 17th 2023.

Thompson was endorsed by many prominent elected officials and organizations including: Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee (BAYMEC), California Democratic Party, California Working Families Party, Equality California, Monterey Bay Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO), Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte, Congressman Ro Khanna, Former Federal Elections Commission Chair Ann Ravel, State Board of Equalization Sally Lieber, State Senator Aisha Wahab, State Senator Scott Weiner, State Senator Josh Becker, State Senator Dave Cortese, Former Assembly Member Mark Stone, and Santa Cruz County Supervisor Justin Cummings along with over 100 local elected officials.

Thompson was running to fill the seat of termed out Santa Cruz City Council Member Sandy Brown. Brown endorsed Thompson for the seat.

Thompson ran on a platform of workers rights, protecting the environment, and building affordable housing among other issues. Thompson specifically called on the Santa Cruz City Council to adopt a Project Labor Agreement between the City Council and the Monterey/Santa Cruz Building and Construction Trades Council.

Thompson was defeated in the primary by Susie O'Hara due to the City's new district election system.

There is not enough information about Thompson's campaign for Santa Cruz County Democratic Central Committee, however, the election was held at the same time as the City Council election.

Electoral history

California's 28th State Assembly district election, 2022

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Gail Pellerin	41,575	35.9
	Republican	Liz Lawler	34,065	29.4
	Democratic	Rob Rennie	28,592	24.7
	Democratic	Joe Thompson	11,664	10.1
General election
	Democratic	Gail Pellerin	121,119	68.0
	Republican	Liz Lawler	56,917	32.0
Total votes			178,036	100.0%
	Democratic hold

Santa Cruz City Council District 5 non-partisan election, 2024

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Susie O'Hara	859	57.81
	Democratic	Joe Thompson	616	41.45
		Write in	11	0.74
Total votes			1,486	100.0%
	Democratic hold

Santa Cruz County Democratic Central Committee District 5 election, 2024 (vote for 5)

Primary election
Candidate	Votes	%
Coco Raner-Walter	3,975	15.65
Rachael "Rae" Spencer-Hill	3,974	15.65
Linda Kerner	3,953	15.57
Glenn Glazer	3,718	14.64
Joe Thompson	3,499	13.78
Amanda Harris Altice	3,297	12.98
Wendy L Harris	1,639	6.45
Lou Chiaramonte Jr	1,115	4.39
Write ins	226	0.89