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Assault, kidnapping investigation at SC Starbucks continues, new audio of incident surfaces

Allegations of kidnapping and simple assault at an Anderson Starbucks during a union meeting are still under investigation, Anderson County Sheriff’s spokesperson Carrie Skeen said Wednesday.

She said no further details could be released.

Store manager Melissa Morris filed a report on Aug. 1 in which she claims she was unable to leave until workers got a raise and that she was assaulted by an employee, Anderson County Deputy Noah Litteer wrote in the incident report.

A video of the incident posted on TikTok shows the manager on the phone sitting at a table with a dozen or so employees standing nearby. The manager then gets up, walks past them and to the front of the store, nudging one employee as they pass.

Someone says, “Why are you pushing him?”

It has been viewed millions of times since it was posted at @sbworkersunited and reposted by thousands of people.

Starbucks Media Relations released a statement saying, “When a partner claims a threat to their safety or well-being at Starbucks it is our policy to investigate the incident and, if we deem inappropriate, suspend (with pay) those who were accused of threatening behavior.”

It was Morris’ first day on the job at the Starbucks store at the Clemson Boulevard exit of Interstate 85, Media Relations said.

“We fully respect our partners’ right to organize but no one, regardless of their interest in a union, is exempt from the standards we have always held – that everyone in our stores can expect to be treated with dignity and respect and work in a warm, welcoming, inclusive environment,” the company statement said.

More Perfect Union posted an audio of the incident in which a union organizer explains the demands and says employees will not work until they get a raise. Morris is on the phone, then says someone named Nicole will talk to them. Morris asks, “Will you let me leave the building,” and someone responds, “yes.”

Morris edges her way out along a line of 11 employees pressed close to the table Morris had been sitting at and other unoccupied tables, the original video shows.

Someone from the union called the action March on the Boss, a union tactic in which a group of employees go together to express their demands.

A Twitter post from the union called the kidnapping and assault allegations “false and absurd.”

The store voted unanimously to form a union earlier this year and presented demands on Aug. 1, including more pay, broken equipment and more hours.

“We’re basically being kept in the dark about any information,” Mya Ourada, a store barista, told the Anderson Independent Mail. “A couple of us are minors. A lot of us here have to get a second job to afford basic necessities.”

“We partners have had enough with our company’s intimidation and aggressive union-busting campaign. It is time for our overworked and underpaid partners to strike back!” Aneil Tripathi, a union organizer said on a gofundme page, seeking to replace lost wages while the store is closed.