Union momentum seems to have lost its steam at Starbucks, AP reports
Union petition filing peaked in March 2022, according to the Associated Press
One of the big news stories in 2022 was the rapid pace at which Starbucks cafes were unionizing. Now, in the New Year, it seems the efforts to unionize Starbucks cafes nationwide may stalled.
“Only 35% of overall union elections result in a first contract within a year. “Forty-four percent of workers still don’t have a contract more than three years after an election.” — Kate Bronfenbrenner, the director of labor education research at Cornell University’s ILR School
Workers United—an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union— began its campaign to unionize Starbucks in late 2021, and successfully unionized 266 stores over the course of 2022.
However, the fever pitch of union petitions at Starbucks seems to have significantly waned, notes the Associated Press (AP).
Since December of 2021, 358 Starbucks stores have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board 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. {Emphasis added.]
Of the 358 petitions file since December 2021, although the union has won recognition at 266 of the stores, according to the data at UnionElections.com, it has failed in 84 of the cases by either losing the elections or withdrawing the petitions.
While the union blames the company’s alleged interference, citing the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) 50 complaints “encompassing over 1,100 violations of federal labor law,” the union also “faces resistance from Starbucks’ own workers,” reports the AP.
As unionization efforts at Starbucks were raging amid a tight labor market, the company—which operates around 9,000 company-owned stores in the U.S.,—improved wages and benefits across the country. However, to the union’s chagrin—and subsequent charges at the NLRB—the raises did not apply to the unionized locations due to an employer’s duty to remain the status quo when in negotiating. This may have, in part, led to the decrease in union activity.
‘Wait and See’
Additionally, as unionized stores have begun the bargaining process, none have reached an contract for the union to use as an inducement for other non-union stores to join.
“I’ve talked to partners at stores that haven’t unionized and they say, ‘I’m going to wait and see what happens,’” said Josie Serrano, a union organizer and Starbucks employee in Long Beach, California told the AP. “It’s a bummer. We do have to address and fight that.”
Indeed, as there no requirement under the law for the parties to agree to a contract, it is entirely possible for the union to fail at achieving anything at the bargaining table.
“Only 35% of overall union elections result in a first contract within a year,” according to Kate Bronfenbrenner, the director of labor education research at Cornell University’s ILR School claims. “Forty-four percent of workers still don’t have a contract more than three years after an election.”
Indeed, last year, a Bloomberg analysis revealed that it takes an average 465 days to negotiate a first-time contract.
Baristas at other coffee chains follow Starbucks’ lead with mixed results
Although union organizing activity at Starbucks may be losing steam, workers at other coffee chains are also joining the union bandwagon.
Workers at some stores within Peets Coffee chain, as well as a number of others, have filed petitions for elections to unionize, with mixed results.
In Chicago, workers at Intelligentsia Coffee ratified a two-year collective bargaining agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).
However, Great Lakes Coffee in Midtown Detroit closed permanently last year after workers went on strike and tried to unionize.
“It is permanent," attorney Frank Mamat of Dinsmore & Shohl, who represents the shop's coffee supplier told the Detroit Free Press. "They (the coffee shop) weren't making money and they couldn't find people that felt comfortable working there because of omicron, and the customers felt the same way — they weren’t coming.”