ICYMI: Starbucks Workers' United Non-Union Union Organizers Just Unionized
Though there was no secret-ballot election, the support for unionization was unanimous, according to TNG.
By Peter List, Editor | February 21, 2025
For the past three years, as thousands of Starbucks’ baristas have become unionized, the union organizers who were organizing the baristas into Workers United—the parent union of Starbucks Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)—were not unionized themselves.
Well, that has now changed.
“Organizers for Workers United on the Starbucks Workers United campaign and at the New York New Jersey Joint Board have won voluntary recognition after staff in both locations expressed unanimous support for unionizing,” the NewsGuild announced last week.
The NewsGuild, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), represents many bargaining units that work inside other unions.
“We are thrilled to have secured voluntary recognition from Workers United and humbled to join The NewsGuild as field organizers, media specialists, and data professionals working on the Starbucks campaign – we know that every worker deserves a union, not least union staff who build the organizations of the labor movement day in and day out,” Malachi Dray, a lead organizer at Workers United, was quoted as saying. “By affiliating with The NewsGuild-CWA, we’ve found a fighting home for our crew and we look forward to the bright path ahead.”
Union recognition is only the first step of unionization. The next step will be for Workers United to negotiate a contract with its newly unionized union organizers.
Over the last three years, at Starbucks—where Workers United has unionized thousands of baristas since late 2021—Workers United has not successfully negotiated a first contract.
Hopefully, it won’t take as long for Workers United to agree to a contract with its own newly-unionized workers.