A year ago, workers in a starbucks Stores in Buffalo, New York, voted to form a union, a first for the chain.
Union victory at Elmwood Avenue location The chain’s more than 300 cafes have since followed suit with their own petitions for union elections and inspired staff Chipotle Mexican Grill, REI and Trader Joe’s will hold their own stores. Over the past year, more than 260 Starbucks stores have voted in favor of unionizing, according to data from the National Labor Relations Board, giving the union an 80% win rate.
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In April, as the union movement continued to pick up steam, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson announced he would be retiring. Howard Schultz, who built the company into a global coffee giant, returned for a third term in the top job with a goal of reinventing Starbucks, including a plan to improve its relations with workers.
With Schultz gone, the Seattle-based company is fighting back against the union push, and a slowdown in union petition filings since May suggests those efforts may be paying off. Less than 3% of the more than 9,000 Starbucks-owned US locations have voted to unionize.
“We are proud to announce industry-leading, partner-focused additional investments over the past year, including increased salaries, modernized training and collaboration, additional and improved benefits, store innovation, and more, bringing the total investment to approximately $1 billion in this fiscal year alone,” Starbucks spokeswoman Rachel Wall said in a comment to CNBC.
Michele Eisen, an employee of the Elmwood Avenue location in Buffalo, owed much to the union for the workers.
“We have pressured the company to implement pay increases, seniority pay, credit card tipping and more,” he said in a statement. “We have made Starbucks a better company and a better place to work for all baristas – both union and non-union.”
Starbucks has fired organizers for unrelated disruptions, closed a handful of union stores and withheld higher pay and increased benefits from baristas at unionized locations. The company denies allegations that it engaged in unfair labor practices to eliminate the union.
To date, Starbucks and the union have yet to agree on a contract for any new unionized locations, and talks have broken down over a disagreement about whether union members can join the talks via Zoom.
The Starbucks representative left minutes after the meeting began.Insisting on face-to-face interactions only, citing federal regulations, The company has filed 22 complaints related to negotiations with the National Labor Relations Board.
Labor laws do not require that the employer and union reach a collective bargaining agreement, only that both bargain in good faith. And after a year, workers who have lost faith in the union can petition to cancel it, ticking off on negotiations.
Wall said Starbucks representatives will be present in person for more than 75 bargaining sessions with individual stores by the end of the year.
Cathy Creighton, director of Cornell University’s industrial and labor relations branch in Buffalo, said companies often use delaying tactics to frustrate unions and take away momentum.
Unions Are Rare in the Restaurant Industry, According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 1.2% of workers at food and drink outlets were members of unions last year, which is much lower than the private sector unionization rate of 6.3%. But Starbucks’ high-profile union push has inspired organizers other restaurants and retailers to follow the barista’s example.
“Outside of Starbucks, I think it’s created a ripple effect in the economy,” Creighton said. “It encourages other people to file the petition.”
– Data visualization by CNBC’s Gabriel Cortes.