Jump to content

Starbucks unions

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Czar (talk | contribs) at 22:06, 10 December 2021 (→‎Buffalo: country). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Starbucks barista at work, 2017

Workers of the multinational coffeehouse chain Starbucks have inconsistently organized in unions since the 1980s. Many of these unions have folded, in part due to the company's long history of opposing unionization efforts. Warehouse and roasting plant workers in Seattle were Starbucks' first to unionize in 1985. During contract negotiation, the bargaining unit expanded to include store workers but the same workers moved to decertify their representation within two years. Starbucks stores and a distribution plant unionized in British Columbia in the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s. The company strongly opposed unionization efforts in the 2000s through present day, with multiple National Labor Relations Board complaints ending in settlements or findings of labor law violations. The Industrial Workers of the World led an organizing campaign in the mid-2000s based in New York City that did not result in union recognition. About a third of Starbucks' Chilean workforce is unionized, as is one store in Canada. In late 2021, a Buffalo, New York, store became the first American shop to unionize since the 1980s. Several other American stores are awaiting union ballots in the United States.

Early unionization

Starbucks workers first voted to unionize with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1001 in March 1985.[1] The unit included about about 120 people.[2] Their contract, secured in 1986, brought health care coverage, paid vacation, and sick leave to Starbucks part-time workers in Seattle and its suburbs. When Howard Schultz became president of the company in 1987, he reneged on his pledge to honor that contract. In new negotiations, Schultz wanted to expand the warehouse and roasting plant bargaining unit to include workers from the 11 Starbucks stores. This approach intended for the larger, diluted unit to reject the union but backfired when the store workers did the opposite. Schultz proposed reductions in medical benefits, work hours, just cause termination protections established in the prior contract. These negotiations, interrupted by a movement to decertify the union, did not result in a contract.[3]

One store employee, Daryl Moore, together with signatures of other workers opposed to the union, successfully moved to decertify the union in late 1987. The union for warehouse and roasting plant workers was also decertified in 1992.[4] While company president Schultz wrote that the company had no involvement in the employee's decertification filing, local union leaders said that the company management had made the decertification filing and hired anti-union consultants and lawyers to help.[3]

The company has strongly opposed subsequent unionization efforts.[3] When 12 stores and a distribution plant in British Columbia unionized in the mid-1990s, Starbucks extended the contract to non-union stores to mitigate unionization incentives, which it tried to undo in the subsequent contract.[3] Western Canada union representation ended in the mid-2000s.[5] A New York City union drive was unsuccessful in the 2000s.[6] The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charged Starbucks with 30 violations of labor law in 2007 for attempts to prevent four Manhattan stores from unionizing.[3][7] A worker in a Minneapolis store was rehired in 2008, settling a NLRB complaint of being fired for organizing.[2][8] In a 2019 Philadelphia union drive, the company fired two organizing employees, which the labor board ruled unlawful. An appeal is pending.[6] During this time, the main unionized Starbucks employees were those who worked for other companies with unionized labor and a licensing agreement,[6] such as those who operated kiosks in unionized supermarkets.[3]

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) led a grassroots organizing effort called the Starbucks Workers Union in several American cities starting in 2004. The union, which works outside the mainstream American labor movement, intended to prove that unions could break into the fast food industry. A New York-based store petitioned for an election but eventually withdrew.[2][9] The IWW did not pursue traditional contract organizing after the 2004 withdrawal. Their effort, which included members in six New York stores and one Chicago store,[10] led to a series of National Labor Relations Board cases that uncovered how corporate executives coordinated to fill union-supporting stores with anti-union hires. In 2008, a judge ruled that Starbucks had broken labor laws by discriminating against union supporting employees and prohibiting employees from speaking about the union. A charge that an employee was fired for organizing, to be rehired with back pay, was reversed on appeal.[2] A 2007 complaint to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration about animal and insect infestation found other violations but no health hazards.[10]

A new union, Unite, in New Zealand effort began demonstrations against Starbucks in 2005 and negotiated a contract with the country's Starbucks operator offering 450 workers better pay and hours.[10]

In 2011, the 200 workers in the Chilean Starbucks union Sindicato de Trabajadores de Starbucks Coffee Chile went on strike for better wages and health care, the first strike in the company's history. The latter's leaders began a hunger strike after receiving no corporate response from two weeks of striking. At the time, Chile had the company's largest union population, including about 30% of its 670 workers since the company entered the country in 2003. American IWW Starbucks Workers Union employees planned a "global week of action" in solidarity with the unaffiliated Chilean union.[11]

More Starbucks stores unionized in Canada. A Quebec City store briefly unionized in 2009[5] via the IWW.[12] In August 2020, a Victoria store joined United Steelworkers as the only unionized store in the country. Among their top grievances were COVID-19 pandemic safety precautions.[5]

Buffalo

Workers from the Elmwood Avenue Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionize in late 2021,[13] making it the only unionized shop among the chain's nine thousand stores in the United States. Two other Buffalo stores voted concurrently, of which one declined to unionize and another's results have yet to be announced. The workers join Workers United of the Service Employees International Union. They sought to redress issues of understaffing and undertraining, issues that have been long associated with the company and exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The successful union vote was recognized as a symbolic victory for the American labor movement[6] and came during a time of heightened unionization activity in the country.[14]

During the union drive, the company sent other managers and executives, including its North America retail president, to Buffalo to engage with employees about operational issues and participate in their work. Starbucks temporarily closed some area stores for remodeling and added excessive staff to one of the stores preparing to vote. Workers said this reduced union support there, while Starbucks said the support was meant to compensate for increased sick leave during the pandemic as it had done elsewhere in the country.[6] The company also requested that all 20 Buffalo-area stores vote simultaneously, as close to half of area employees worked at more than one store that year.[15] This approach generally works against unionization and would have expanded the voting pool from 81 employees to 450. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) sided against the company twice, letting stores vote as individual units and not delaying the vote count further.[13] The ballot was conducted by mail.[6] Separately, workers filed a NLRB complaint of company intimidation and surveillance to discourage the union drive.[13]

Workers from three additional Buffalo stores have filed for elections,[6] as has a store in Mesa, Arizona.[15]

References

  1. ^ https://www.historylink.org/File/20292
  2. ^ a b c d Jamieson, Dave (February 1, 2019). "Howard Schultz and Starbucks' Long History of Fending Off Unions". HuffPost. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Scigliano, Eric (February 8, 2019). "How Howard Schultz Left a Bitter Taste in Seattle's Mouth". Politico Magazine. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  4. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=7MovEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA545
  5. ^ a b c Saba, Rosa (October 8, 2020). "Some Starbucks locations consider unionizing following complaints of overwork, lack of protection". The Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Scheiber, Noam (December 9, 2021). "Starbucks workers at a Buffalo store unionize in a big symbolic win for labor". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  7. ^ Gross, Daniel (April 8, 2007). "Latte Laborers Take on a Latte-Liberal Business". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  8. ^ "Starbucks settles barista's union complaint". NBC News. Associated Press. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  9. ^ Kamenetz, Anya (May 19, 2005). "A Union Revolution is Brewing at Starbucks No. 7356 on Madison Avenue". New York Magazine. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  10. ^ a b c Allison, Melissa (January 2, 2007). "Union struggles to reach, recruit Starbucks workers". The Seattle Times. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  11. ^ Jargon, Julie (July 26, 2011). "Baristas Put Pressure on Starbucks". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660.
  12. ^ "Une première dans un Starbucks". Radio-Canada.ca (in Canadian French). July 14, 2009. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  13. ^ a b c Lucas, Amelia; Rogers, Kate (December 9, 2021). "Starbucks will have at least one unionized cafe in Buffalo, New York — a U.S. first for the chain". CNBC. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  14. ^ Eidelson, Josh (November 7, 2021). "Starbucks Union Vote Sets Up Watershed Moment for U.S. Labor". Bloomberg for Time. Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  15. ^ a b Durbin, Dee-Ann (December 2, 2021). "Starbucks fights expanding unionization effort at its stores". ABC News. Associated Press. Retrieved December 10, 2021.

Further reading

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Starbucks_unions&oldid=1059675010"