Starbucks workers at a store in upstate New York have voted to join a union, a first for the coffee chain’s more than 8,000 company-owned stores in the U.S.
The election result — the first to be announced for three of the company’s stores in the region — came from Tom Miller, a field examiner with the National Labor Relations Board’s office in Buffalo, New York.
The bid to unionize at a second store was rejected, with 12 ballots opposed and eight cast in favor. Four ballots were not included in the tally, with one voided by the NLRB and two of three challenges unresolved but insufficient to change the outcome, Miller said. The ballot counting for a third Starbucks store in the Buffalo area continued Thursday afternoon.
Of 27 ballots cast, 19 favored joining a union and eight voted against it, Miller said Thursday during a counting that took place in a videoconference.
Starbucks declined to comment, with a spokesperson saying the company would wait until all the ballots had been counted.
The incipient push by workers to organize at Starbucks could open the door for employees at other stores to demand union representation, as well as have a ripple effect on the broader retail industry, which for decades has drawn fire for issues including low pay and unfair scheduling.
More than 80 baristas and shift supervisors from three Buffalo-area stores had voted by mail on whether to be represented by Workers United, an arm of the Service Employees International Union. The election ended Wednesday.
The National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday rejected an appeal by Starbucks to stop the counting of ballots. The company had argued that the election should include all 20 of the region’s stores, which effectively would have required the union to sway a much larger pool of workers.
Labor board members wrote in their unanimous ruling that Starbucks had not met the burden of proof needed to override the NLRB’s premise that a proposed bargaining unit consisting of one workplace is legitimate. Just because a bigger group of workers in the region might share a “community of interest” is not sufficient to disprove the agency’s presumption, they wrote.
Tilt in the balance of power
The union activity at Starbucks comes amid increased leverage for workers amid nationwide labor shortages and as a record number of Americans quit their jobs. Organized labor is also drawing more public support. A survey by Gallup in August found approval of unions at a more than 50-year high, with 68% of Americans saying they favored unions.
Pro-union Starbucks workers say they are fighting for higher wages, improved staffing and training, as well as steady pay hikes for those who stay with the company for years.
“We have no accountability right now. We have no say,” said Casey Moore, a union organizer who has been working at a Buffalo-area Starbucks for around six months. “With a union we will actually be able to sit down at the table and say, `This is what we want.'”
Since the efforts to organize began, baristas at three additional Starbucks stores have also requested permission from the NLRB to vote on a union. A similar effort is under way among workers at a Starbucks in Arizona.
Beyond its appeal with the NLRB, Starbucks dispatched executives to Buffalo — including legendary former CEO Howard Schultz — to make the company’s case that a union would make it harder for workers to pick up shifts at multiple stores. Starbucks has a “network of company-operated stores that work together to create a better partner experience,” Johnson stated in his letter.
Days ahead of federal officials setting the union vote, Starbucks said it would hike starting pay to $15 an hour as well as raise wages 5% for staff employed more than two years and 10% for those with the company more than five years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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