By Mariam Rasooli
On December 9, 2021, employees of a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York voted to become the first unionized Starbucks in the nation, by a vote of 19-8.[1] The unionization of this store triggered a surge of organizing efforts in other locations across the country. Within less than a year, in October 2022, employees at an estimated 245 Starbucks locations had voted to unionize.[2] Currently, the number of unionized Starbucks has risen to 284 stores.[3] Pro-union employees advocated for better staffing, training, and pay—including steady wage increases for employees who remain with the company long-term.[4]
Prior to this surge, unionization at businesses like Starbucks was relatively uncommon. An analysis of union election petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that a decade ago, fewer than 4% of union election petitions came from the food and drink sector.[5] By May 2022, this sector made up nearly 28% of new petitions to unionize.[6] It’s clear that there has been a significant shift in the labor movement with this recent wave of unionization of Starbucks employees, but why now?
Experts say the COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest factor in this union surge.[7] In the earlier stages of the pandemic, many workers found themselves in lockdown—while others had no choice but to work on-site despite the health risks.[8] The disillusionment with employer-employee relations, coupled with the stress of working in the service industry during a pandemic, likely stoked discussions on labor issues. [9] While employees were working through the worst parts of the pandemic with no significant raise in benefits, companies like Starbucks increased their global revenues to $6.7 billion by April 2021, while enrollment in its loyalty rewards program shot up 18%.[10] When the Starbucks employees in Buffalo successfully unionized, it set off a chain reaction as other employees gained the motivation to organize themselves.
The unionization efforts have not come easily. Workers United—the union responsible for organizing Starbucks stores—has accused Starbucks of engaging in union-busting tactics such as intimidation, retaliation, and bargaining in bad faith by drawing out the process of negotiations.[11] From December 2021 to 2022, 457 unfair labor practice charges were filed against Starbucks with the NLRB; likewise, Starbucks filed 47 charges against Workers United.[12] These allegations have resulted in litigation brought before the NLRB and federal courts.
Last month, in a case brought by the NLRB for Starbucks’ alleged firing of over 200 employees for union activities, the Starbucks labor movement encountered a major and unforeseen setback.[13] A federal judge in Michigan issued an injunction banning Starbucks from firing employees for seeking to form a union or engaging in other collective activities.[14] This injunction would have allowed the NLRB to come before the judge and seek speedier reinstatement of employees believed to have been unlawfully discharged for union organizing, a process that could otherwise takes months or even years.[15] This would have been a sizable success for the NLRB and Starbucks employees. However, six days later the judge withdrew his injunction, announcing that he made unspecified “errors.”[16] Scaling back the nationwide scope of his earlier injunction, the judge issued a new one that was limited to a store in Michigan where a labor board judge found that an employee was unlawfully fired for union activities.[17] In his opinion the judge stated that the evidence presented only supported an injunction for that single store.[18]
Although Starbucks employees lost the protections that would have been granted had the earlier injunction not been withdrawn, the increase in efforts to unionize are not likely to end. A survey conducted in August 2022 showed that 71% of Americans support labor unions—the highest approval rate in the U.S. since 1965. In addition, the NLRB under the Biden Administration has advanced its pro-union agenda, most notably in its reaching of a favorable settlement with Amazon regarding the right to unionize without retaliation. [19] The combination of union support amongst the presidential administration and in popular sentiment points towards a continuance of the Starbucks labor movement.
[1] Mary Yang, Starbucks Union Organizing Gave Labor a Jolt of Energy in 2022, Nat. Pub. Radio (Dec. 9, 2022), https://www.npr.org/2022/12/09/1140424418/starbucks-union-organizing-gave-labor-a-jolt-of-energy-in-2022; Alina Selyukh, Starbucks Workers Form Their 1st Union in the U.S. in a Big Win for Labor, Nat. Pub. Radio (Dec. 9, 2021), https://www.npr.org/2021/12/09/1062150045/starbucks-first-union-buffalo-new-york.
[2] Sean Peek, Drip, Drip, Drip: Lessons From the Starbucks Union Movement, Business.com (Feb. 21, 2023), https://www.business.com/articles/starbucks-union-movement/.
[3]Current Starbucks Statistics, Union Election Data (last updated Mar. 13, 2023), https://unionelections.org/data/starbucks/.
[4] Starbucks Workers Form Their 1st Union in the U.S. in a Big Win for Labor, Nat. Pub. Radio (Dec. 9, 2021), https://www.npr.org/2021/12/09/1062150045/starbucks-first-union-buffalo-new-york.
[5] Sean Peek, Drip, Drip, Drip: Lessons From the Starbucks Union Movement, Business.com (Feb. 21, 2023), https://www.business.com/articles/starbucks-union-movement/.
[6] Id.
[7] Q.ai, Starbucks Union: Why Are Workers Unionizing Now? What Do Unions Really Mean to Investors?, Forbes (Dec. 19, 2022), https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2022/12/19/starbucks-union-why-are-workers-unionizing-now-what-do-unions-really-mean-to-investors/?sh=18af2ae21445.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Julie Creswell, Starbucks Says Its U.S. Sales Have Made A ‘Full Recovery.’, New York Times (Oct. 18, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/business/starbucks-earnings.html.
[11] Mary Yang, Starbucks Union Organizing Gave Labor a Jolt of Energy in 2022, Nat. Pub. Radio (Dec. 9, 2022), https://www.npr.org/2022/12/09/1140424418/starbucks-union-organizing-gave-labor-a-jolt-of-energy-in-2022
[12] Id.
[13] Noam Scheiber, Judge Bans Starbucks From Firing Union Supporters, New York Times (Feb. 22, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/17/business/starbucks-union-ruling.html.
[14] Id.
[15] Id.
[16] Noam Scheiber, Judge Scales Back Ruling Against Starbucks in Union Fight, New York Times (Feb. 23, 2023), https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/business/economy/starbucks-union-ruling.html.
[17] Id.
[18] Id.
[19] Ryan Grim, Biden’s NLRB Was Essential to Unionizing the Amazon Warehouse in Staten Island, Intercept (Apr. 22, 2022), https://theintercept.com/2022/04/22/amazon-warehouse-union-biden-nlrb/.