US federal labour officials have asked a judge to force Starbucks to reinstate three union activists at its Phoenix location, alleging that the coffee giant engaged in unfair labour practices.
The National Labor Relations Board has sought an injunction that would make Starbucks hire back three employees who were three of four members of the union organising committee.
The NLRB's petition is the latest blow to the coffee chain as locations nationwide seek to unionise. Workers at the flagship Seattle location voted last week to form a union, as did baristas in Colorado.
Workers United says that 26 Starbucks locations have unionised across the US.
“A big part of it is just that we don’t have a seat at the table, we don’t have a voice in our workplace,” said Liz Duran, an operations lead at Starbucks.
In Association with
“People have been pushed to the edge more and more and more throughout recent years, and with the breaking point being over, the Covid pandemic really just bringing workers to a point where you realize the power that we really do have."
The unionisation drive was one reason prompting Howard Schultz to return to the CEO role, on an interim basis, at the beginning of April. Schultz bought the company in 1987 and led it for more than three decades,
His first move was to suspend Starbucks' share buyback programme, promising instead to use the cash to invest in the company.
“This decision will allow us to invest more profit into our people and our stores — the only way to create long-term value for all stakeholders,” he stated.
Starbucks announced late last year that it was committing to a three-year $20bn share repurchase and dividend program to return profits to investors.
That was on top of a $25bn share buyback and dividend program the company announced in 2018.
Last year Starbucks committed to spending $1bn over two years to increase US employee pay, which will average $17 per hour by this summer.
But many workers have questioned if that was adequate, and are joining a union to make their point heard.
Workers United, a branch of the Service Employees International Union, is leading that effort.
This unionisation drive has some way to go – Starbucks owns 9,000 stores across the United States.
In his previous time with the company, the 68-year-old Schultz successfully fought attempts to unionise Starbucks’ stores and roasting plants.
Starbucks had to reinstate fired workers or pay to settle labour law violations numerous times under Schultz’s leadership in the early 2000s.
'Talking union'
John Logan, a San Francisco State University academic and labour movement scholar, notes that the Starbucks campaigns have been led by determined young workers.
Logan adds: “Inspired by pro-union sentiment in political movements, such as Bernie Sanders’ presidential bids, Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Socialists of America, these individuals are spearheading the efforts for workplace reform rather than professional union organisers.
“Indeed, one would be hard pressed to find many experienced organisers among the recent successful campaigns.
“Instead, the campaigns have involved a significant degree of workers ‘talking union’ to each other in the warehouse and coffee shops and reaching out to colleagues in other shops in the same city and across the nation.”
Logan believes that the significance of the recent victories is not primarily about the gradual flow of new union members at Starbucks, and 8,000 new union members at Amazon.
“It is about instilling in workers the belief that if pro-union workers can win at Amazon and Starbucks, they can win anywhere,” he explains. “Historic precedents show that labour mobilisation can be infectious.”
“The biggest weapons that anti-union corporations have in suppressing labour momentum are the fear of retaliation and a sense that unionisation is futile. The recent successes show unionising no longer seems so frightening or so futile.”
+ Additional reporting: AP. Pic: AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin.
