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July 15, 2022
Union victories are moving ahead at Starbucks despite the fact that unions remain a small percentage of its 8,000 customer shops. There are now over 189 unionized stores, and petitions for voting for a union have been filed in at least 37 states. When a couple of Starbucks shops first unionized in Buffalo, New York last December, Starbucks top officials thought they still had things under control. CEO Howard Schultz flew into town to issue anti-union lectures and threats. Meanwhile, Schultz’s then North American president, Rossann Williams, made it clear that the problem was that Buffalo baristas “have not [yet] had the Starbucks experience”. Williams and Schultz were there to give Buffalo that experience, but it turns out that experience was in violation of NLRB labor law. The NLRB, which rarely finds in favor of the workers, found that Starbucks violated federal labor law by firing, threatening, and carrying out surveillance on the union activists in New York. (1) The genie was out of the bottle.
At this point the so-called “friendly relations” between labor and top management has been widely exposed at Starbucks. Nevertheless, the Starbucks capitalists kept trying to poison the atmosphere with their pathetic appeals to the workers to remain loyal “partners” – or else! But the conditions the workers face tells them the truth. That is why the movement springs ahead. It’s definitely not a quirk in Buffalo! Indeed, on July 13, Starbucks could not hide its vile anti-worker agenda by announcing plans to close 16 stores without any discussion with its worker “partners”. Then again, another shift in tactics. Starbucks now has “second thoughts” about this plan, whatever that means. (2)
No, the Starbucks baristas are part of a revived union movement in the service industries nationally. Indeed, Starbucks in Buffalo was inspired by the fight for unions at nearby Spot Coffee houses. There was the famous success at the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island. And on June 18, Apple Store workers in Towson, Maryland won their first victory for a union by 65-33, joining the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. (3) And there are many more examples. Only the greedy capitalists running Starbucks could temporarily hide from the fact that the Starbucks movement was part of this general struggle.
The Starbucks CEO has tried to kill the union drive. Schultz promised to give in to many of the workers’ demands, despite the fact that only a pittance of the workplaces had been organized. The key, though, was that wage and benefit increases would be denied to union workplaces. (4) Schultz could see the handwriting on the wall. It was either watch a steady increase in the unions or begin to pacify the workers in some way. Whether Starbucks can get away with this has been challenged by the union. Many bourgeois lawyers doubt that it’s legal to have two different wage pay scales and benefit packages for the same workforce.
In any case, the workers must look at this “solution” differently than Schultz, their false “partner.” The CEO is trying to lure employees away from having an independent voice. But what real guarantee is there that wage and benefit promises will appear without an independent workforce? Should Starbucks workers be left as two camps, unionized and non-unionized, one supposed to be better off than the other? This is Howard Schultz’s final solution to the problem, but it does not resolve it. Workers must continue the fight to the finish.
The anti-union campaign of Starbucks has no bounds. On the one hand, the founder and present CEO Howard Schultz claimed that Starbucks was supposed to be more enlightened on social causes than other companies. And to some extent this was true. But workers recognized the company was run in an authoritarian style, and it was evident that for all the talk of the baristas being “partners”, in reality they were mere wage workers, there to produce the massive profits made by billionaires like Schultz.
The Starbucks capitalists do not hesitate to fire workers they consider troublesome, that is, pro-union. They will even temporarily close stores to disrupt organizing efforts. In Ithaca, NY they have closed a store because of its more activist union stance. (5) The store was closed in June. Workers were offered a transfer to other stores (unionized, but less militant!) in the area. However, the company would not guarantee the workers job security if they moved. In other places, the employers try to send surplus workers to vote at a shop that is pro-union, hoping this will tip the balance to an anti-union vote. They confront workers face to face to lecture them about the consequences of joining a union. Mandatory lectures were given spreading lies about unions, as a so-called “third force” between the two “partners” who were supposed to be the baristas (the workers) and the top management. The bosses also argued time after time that a single store should not be allowed to vote. This was overruled by the NLRB, but Starbucks kept on raising it. Why was this an issue? At that time, the union (Starbucks Workers United) was not strong enough to organize beyond certain single workplaces.
To get an idea of how steeped in the neo-liberal swamp CEO Schultz had become, one need only look at a statement he made to 20 or so workers he had invited to a conference. Unable to deal with any pro-union arguments, he floundered like a child: “If you hate Starbucks so much, why don’t you go somewhere else?” Schultz treats his “partners” as if they were babies, but he is the biggest baby of them all! (6)
Despite the desperate moves by Starbucks top officials, there has been a significant increase in the number of unions at individual Starbucks stores. But there are over 8,000 Starbucks stores in the U.S. While 150-plus stores have been organized, there is a long way to go. Will the pace continue to grow as it did in the last few months? The increase in the size of the unions has led to a particular issue of what union represents the workers. In most cases it is the Starbucks Workers United (which is affiliated with the SEIU). But in other cases, it is the SEIU itself. There is a lot of support between the SEIU and SWU. But also, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union represents at least one Starbucks store.
Below are a few examples, not necessarily the biggest, of what is happening when workers organize unions at Starbucks. Perhaps the most dramatic early victory occurred at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in New York City’s Chelsea market. This has been considered the highest-profile branch location of the chain to unionize. The so-called “flagship” store was first of its kind ever organized by SWU, with the vote being 46-36 in favor. In April, the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle voted to unionize, 38-27. (7) Like the Reserve Roastery in New York City, this was also considered one of the company’s flagship roaster locations. The Seattle Roastery is in the Capital Hill neighborhood where another Starbucks store also had a unanimous pro-union vote. At other pro-union campaigns, workers walked off the jobs in pro-union actions. Meanwhile, at the flagship store one of the big issues driving workers to organize was that they continued to get low pay while having to perform more services. Barista Brenna Collins describes this: “We’re generally making as much as the core Starbucks, while also having all these increased expectations – all on top of working [during] a pandemic,” Workers wrote to then-CEO Kevin Johnson about such problems and noted “our concerns and our safety have not been at the forefront of decision making”.
One of the difficulties that came up in the union drive was the narrow defeat of the unionization campaign in Springfield, Virginia after 20 straight victories. Of 19 possible votes, 10 were against and 8 were for. The workers’ demands were clear: “Starbucks is boasting about raising everyone to $15 an hour, but that was ten years ago that we needed that.” “Of course a raise.” “It is not our fault that Starbucks keeps increasing the cost of everything to the point where it’s the most expensive cup of coffee you’ve ever had.” “And then it came out at the time we had record-breaking sales that the CEO at the time, Kevin Johnson, was going to receive a 40% raise.” (8) Other demands concerned regular schedules and work safety, as well the demand for having a voice, a demand that can only be solved by having a union. But management shifted five new workers into the Springfield store, gave stern face to face talks, and did other things to make sure the vote came out “right”. This was a temporary defeat for our comrades in Springfield, but it did nothing to deter the unionization drive overall. In fact, according to one July 5 statement on a SWU webpage, over 180 shops have been organized by that time and 300 more are petitioning the NLRB for a union vote.
Starbucks unions were voted in at two stores in Chicago on May 22. The vote was 20-3 for the store on Ridge and 10-1 for the store on Bryn Mawr.(9) The first Starbucks union in New Jersey was decided by unanimous vote, 15-0. It took place in central NJ in Hopewell Township.(10) Notably, there was much praise from the New Jersey AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech and his Secretary-Treasurer, who scorned the hypocrisy where “Starbucks likes to portray itself as a progressive company, [yet] the workers had to withstand a vicious anti-union campaign.” Such words of support from the normally passive AFL-CIO state leadership indicates that the Starbucks struggle has gained a certain influence. But it should be kept in mind, that reformist AFL-CIO leaders, whatever they say at present, are by no means reliable friends of the workers.
In June, the pro-union sentiment continued. “I may just be a lowly barista, but you’re not going to push me around.” said shift supervisor Armanda Rivera of the Ansley Mall Starbucks in Atlanta, Georgia, awaiting the June 22 election. (11) Also in Atlanta, the Hollow Mills store voted 10-1 to unionize on June 6. A setback occurred in Covington, southeast of Atlanta, where the union was rejected by an 18-4 vote.
Some other victories include the first in Oklahoma at the NW 23rd and Robinson store in Oklahoma City where the vote was an overwhelming 15-2. (12) A second Oklahoma City store at 36th and May was voted in on June 14. (13) The margin was 14-1. This store has unique features. It sits on the corner of a busy intersection, has no sitting area, only a cramped drive-thru and walk-up window. The baristas chip in to help a homeless guy use the public restroom outside, give him food, and set up a Go-fund-me account and started encouraging others to donate. They helped get him out of jail by contacting an organization that provides bail. The baristas referee conflicts between drivers and walk-up people in the tiny parking lot. Finally, the store is where there are a large population of 2SLGBTQ+ people, and the store itself reflects this. For all these features, this unionized Starbucks is probably one of a kind.
The progress in unionizing Starbucks workers is an important step forward. The fact that it has incurred the wrath of the Starbucks capitalists and are conceding to certain demands, or pretending to, at least, for non-union workers in order to illegally blackmail the union workers shows their great concern about this small oppositional force. But there are grounds for the pro-union force to grow, and this task must be taken up. How far will unions be established on an individual basis is hard to know. Maybe the present momentum will peter out. Or it may be that such numbers of unionized workers shops are established that Starbucks will face little choice but to cave in time and again, whining at every turn until it can no longer have two work forces, one better off than the off other. There’s 8,000 shops to go. Whatever the odds, the task remains to give the unionized section some clout by organizing to increase their numbers, raising their demands, and helping break down the walls between themselves and the vast non-unionized sections. Already we have seen union demands for wages and benefits equal to those offered to non-union workers, opposing top management’s plan to split the workers and undercut unionization.
As the Starbucks unions become established, they will face the issue of what attitude to take toward disciplinary matters and other workplace conditions. In one case a SWU union in Buffalo had a one-day strike in early July to protest Starbucks’ violations of working conditions. There are opportunities for joint actions between unions.
Overall there are questions of what new policies serve the best interests of the workers. There will have to be a struggle to overcome the suffocating work policies imposed by corporate management. So far there have been a lot of union victories in the legal arena during organizing. The SEIU or its affiliate, Starbucks Workers United, has won some NLRB cases by Starbucks’ wanton violation of labor law. Starbucks so far acts as if this is just the cost of doing business. So it’s important not to be drawn in to relying on the fine words of the mainstream reformist unions of the AFL-CIO. If they offer concrete help, fine. But if they interfere with grassroots organizing and a staunch stand against Starbucks, to hell with them. This is an issue that’s bound to come up more as the SWU is met with other organizing groups from the old AFL-CIO apparatus like the UFCW or the SEIU, which have their own reformist histories.
The issue of how the new Starbucks unions will organize themselves, communicate among themselves, and launch coordinated actions needs to be developed. Hopefully this will mark a new period of workers standing up as a unified force, an independent force, no longer “partners” with management but fighters for real justice, the justice of the working class. Justice for the Starbucks baristas, for the Apple workers, for the Amazon workers! –- not the phony justice of CEO Schultz and his fellow capitalists.
1) The Guardian, May 19, 2022, Michael Sainato, “Starbucks has fired over 20 US union leaders”. “The US’s top labor regulator, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), has issued complaints against Starbucks over many of the firings, demanding reinstatement and back pay for seven fired workers in Memphis, Tennessee, three fired workers in Overland, Kansas, six fired workers in Buffalo, New York and three fired workers in Arizona ... The NLRB has accused Starbucks of more than 200 violations of federal labor laws over the course of union organizing campaigns since late 2021.”.
2)National File, July 13, 2022, “Starbucks to close 16 locations across US, citing safety concerns”, Cullen McCue.
3) Yahoo! Finance, “Apple workers in Maryland become first in US to vote ‘yes’ for a union”, June 18, 2022, Alexis Keenan.
4) New York Times, May 3, 2022, “Starbucks plans wage increases that wn’t apply to unionized workers. The initiatve was announced as labor orgnaizers have won initial votes at more than 50 stores, including several this week.” Noam Scheiber.
5) NPR, June 10, 2022, “Starbucks union in Ithaca protests store’s closure and calls for a boycott”, Shruti Rajkumar.
6) Eater, APril 13, 2022, “How Scared Is Howard Schultz of the Starbucks Union Wave? The Starbucks CEO reportedly confronted a unionizing barista at Long Beach, California meeting”, Amy McCarty.
7) Seattle Times,W April 21, 2022, “Workers at Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle vote to unionize”, Heidi Groover.
8) NPR, April 14, 2022, Andrea Hsu, “Starbucks union campaign’s streak of election wins ends with a loss in Virginia”, Andrea Hsu.
9) Chicago Sun Times, May 25, 2022, “Workers at two Edgewater Starbucks stores vote to unionize – First in Chicago for coffee giant”, David Roeder.
10) New Jersey Globe, April 25, 2022, “Hopewell Starbucks votes to unionize”, David Wildstein.
11) Atlanta Civic Circle, June 16, 2022, “Ansley Mall Starbucks workers mobilize for union vote", Kendall Glynn, .
12) Oklahoma City Free Press, May 31, 2022, “Starbucks baristas in OKC NW 23rd store first in state to win union vote”, Brett Dickerson,.
13) Oklahoma City Free Press, “Starbucks workers at NW 36th and May vote big for union”, Brett Dickseron. <>
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https://freepressokc.com/starbucks-workers-at-nw-36th-and-may-vote-big-for-union/.
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