LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Some Starbucks workers in southern Indiana could become the first in the state to unionize.
In a news release Tuesday, Workers United said the majority of hourly workers at the Starbucks at 1231 Veterans Parkway in Clarksville signed a petition and union authorization cards.
Workers at a Starbucks on Factory Lane in Louisville won their union representation election last week, according to the release.
Starbucks Cafe on Veterans Parkway in Clarksville, Indiana. May 31, 2022
"I am a very, very hard worker and I expect for all of us to be paid for putting that much effort into it," Mila Wade who has worked at the Clarksville location for more than a year. Wade currently makes $12/hr. "Certainly if anyone is working fulltime anywhere they deserve a wage that allows them to live on it without depending on others."
At least 85 of Starbucks' 9,000 company-run U.S. stores have voted to unionize since December, according to the National Labor Relations Board, and at least 10 stores have rejected the union. Many more elections are coming. At least 268 stores representing 7,244 workers across the U.S. have petitioned the NLRB to hold union elections.
According to Wade, poor morale and high turnover at the Clarksville location is what made workers take the next step to unionize.
"It has been something we have been working towards for a while but events of the last few weeks with management really kind of escalated that process," said Wade.
The labor board said it officially certified 64 of those 85 elections, which means Starbucks must begin bargaining with the union at those stores. So far, just three — two in Buffalo, New York, and one in Mesa, Arizona — have begun the process. Many others are talking to Starbucks about dates to begin negotiating, according to Workers United, which represents the unionized stores.
All this is happening amid tensions between Workers United and the Seattle coffee giant, which opposes unionization. By the end of May 2022, the NLRB has filed 56 complaints against Starbucks for various labor law violations, including firing workers for union activity. Starbucks has filed two complaints against the union, saying labor organizers harassed and intimidated workers at some stores.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, a longtime union foe, said during a corporate earnings call in May that the company respects the rights of Starbucks’ employees and will bargain where it’s required to. But he also insisted that employees don’t need a union to get the best-in-class wages and benefits Starbucks provides.
“Sharing success through wins and benefits with our partners is among our core values, and has been for 50 years,” Schultz said.
Schultz then announced $200 million in new investments for non-union stores, including raises for veteran employees and more training time for new baristas. The company even promised one of the union’s priorities — credit card tipping — before the end of this year.
Schultz said federal labor law prohibits the company from automatically sharing those investments with unionized stores. But labor experts say that’s a classic anti-union tactic, and Starbucks could easily offer the new benefits as part of the bargaining process.
Even when workers do successfully organize, there’s no guarantee it will stick, as evidenced in 1987 when Starbucks employees voted to decertify the union that represented a handful of Seattle stores just two years after voting it in.
But this time, Starbucks labor organizers say they’re determined to see the process through.
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