As you have probably picked up on by now, I am a huge proponent of supporting the rights of labor unions. I’ve already mentioned how being in unions has helped my grandparents on both sides of my family protect their rights as workers and make a living wage to raise their families with. In addition to the many other family members I have that are members of unions (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) I also have some friends from my hometown who have been attempting to unionize our local Starbucks to ensure their own rights, but their efforts have been repeatedly thwarted. Despite increased calls for better benefits, wages, and hours as well as an end to workplace favoritism, harsh discipline, and gender and racial harassment, Starbucks has been unwilling to budge. Now, it looks like they may finally see change.
Even as someone who is almost always craving a mango dragon fruit refresher, I have been reluctant these pass couple years to spend my money at Starbucks because they have been notoriously antagonistic to their workers for trying to organize (I try my best to only go to Starbucks when I have a gift card). According to the New York Times, Starbucks has been resisting unionization efforts in its stores nationwide since 2021, violating labor laws hundreds of times (Scheiber). But things may be looking up for the nation’s baristas. Representatives from Starbucks and Workers United (the union representing Starbucks employees) have both stated their intentions to begin bargaining and working on frameworks for new contracts in the next couple weeks.
One major shift in the company’s approach is that they will reward workers in the union benefits that had been given to non-union workers in 2022 (I am not a legal scholar, but to me it seems like that is something they should not have legally been able to do in the first place). While the agreement to negotiate seems like a good step forward, only time will tell if Starbucks will faithfully attempt to create contracts that respect the rights of their workers. It certainly seems at first glance that Laxman Narasimhan, who became CEO last year, is dedicated to making things work with the union. Additionally, other high-ranking individuals for the Seattle-founded coffeehouse have expressed their desire for contracts to be ratified this year. If contracts that support the workers and accept their demands are approved, we can have hope that other major corporations such as Amazon and Apple will follow suit in the near future (although that may be a bit too optimistic). Plus, knowing that my friends and baristas across the country are receiving the benefits and wages they deserve and being treated fairly at work means that I can go back to eating my daily spinach feta egg white wrap (rest in peace to my meal plan dollars).
What do you guys think? Will Starbucks actually heed the demands of Workers United throughout negotiations? If it does not, do you think that continued boycotts will eventually force the corporation to work earnestly with the union?
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/27/business/economy/starbucks-workers-united-union.html
I certainly hope that Starbucks will actually go along with these negotiations but in all honestly, who knows if it will happen. I never really went to Starbucks as much as I have been since coming to college so I’m not too educated on the unitization of Starbucks workers (more so big companies like Amazon) but this definitely is super important and if it happens will hopefully pave the way for these bigger companies.
I’ve been trying to keep up with Starbucks union workers and it’s been insane. I can’t believe it has taken them so long to finally at least hear the concerns from the union. Starbucks is also being taken to the Supreme Court for this. They are being sued for violating the national labor relations act. I don’t think a date has been set for when it will be argued, but if it’s during the semester I’ll make sure to write a blog post about it. Hopefully they get their asses sued