Starbucks Unionizing Continues vs Anti-Labor Owner

Labor organizers hope this will be the year that Starbucks’ US workers finally negotiate a union contract. But with bargaining at a standstill and management brainwashing workers, the outcome is uncertain, Dee-Ann Durbin reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: Since December of 2021, a total of 358 Starbucks stores have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold union elections.

A little more than a year after a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, became the first US store to unionize in decades — touching off a wave of labor actions at other big companies like Amazon and Chipotle — the rush to organize Starbucks stores has slowed.

Since December of 2021, a total of 358 Starbucks stores have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold union elections. Petition activity peaked last March, when 69 stores asked to hold elections. By November, that had fallen to 13. Eleven stores filed petitions last month.

Labor organizers say Starbucks has chilled the effort with hard-nosed tactics, including firing pro-union workers and closing unionized stores. Starbucks has also promised wage increases and other benefits at non-union stores.

The company says those perks are subject to bargaining at unionized stores.

But the union drive also faces resistance from Starbucks’ own workers, who have been subjected to disinformation by the rabidly anti-labor management. So far, employees have voted to unionize at 274 stores, or 3% of Starbucks’ 9,000 company-owned US locations, according to the labor board.

Sixty-three stores have voted not to unionize. Union organizers and labor officials have slammed Starbucks for deliberately delaying negotiations with unionized stores and threatening to withhold benefits if workers join unions.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic