Should Starbucks baristas be unionized?
Gabriel Santohir explains why he is closely involved in the Starbucks unionization effort. He works at the S. State St. location in Westerville, Ohio.
Doral Chenoweth, The Columbus Dispatch
Editor’s note: This story was updated to show that the El Paso living wage calculated by MIT was for the beginning of 2022.
A fledgling campaign to unionize thousands of employees at thousands of Starbucks coffee shops nationwide has reached El Paso.
Margie Roman, 26, a barista for a year at the Starbucks at The Fountains at Farah shopping center in East Central El Paso, gathered enough support in April from over half of her 25 co-workers to force an election on whether workers want to be represented by the national Workers United union.
The Philadelphia-based union represents about 86,000 workers nationwide in several industries, including food service. It’s an affiliate of the giant Service Employees International Union.
About 100 corporate-owned Starbucks stores nationwide have unionized so far.
The Farah store election is scheduled to be held by the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, via mailed ballots from June 17 to July 11.
“I like the job,” but not the work environment, Roman said during a telephone interview.
What’s needed are higher wages, more affordable health insurance, more than part-time work hours and job security, Roman said.
“At any given moment, they can fire us or remove us from the schedule. A union would guarantee us security,” she asserted.
Roman said she’s looking for a second job because she’s only allowed to work about 22 hours per week – a problem for many Starbucks employees.
A “Union Solidarity Day” event scheduled for June 4 outside the Farah Starbucks was canceled because workers fear it may have cost them their jobs, Roman said via text message.
As part of the event, Roman urged Starbucks customers via Instagram to order their drinks not by their name but with words supporting the union, such as “Starbucks Union,” and “Union Yes.” Some customers who support the unionization effort have been doing that at Starbucks stores across the country and in El Paso, Roman said.
Union claims of Starbucks’ union-busting efforts denied by company
El Paso’s Roman and Workers United officials said unionizing efforts have been met with union-busting tactics from Starbucks management.
A Starbucks corporate spokesperson, in an email, said, “Any claims of union busting are false. We support our partners’ (employees) right to organize.”
Also, company officials are talking to local store leaders about scheduling adjustments, the spokesperson said.
Workers United has filed more than 180 unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming Starbucks’ officials are illegally interfering with unionizing efforts, including firing some people involved in union organizing, a union official said.
The Starbucks spokesperson said the company has “fully honored the process laid out by the NLRB” for union organizing.
Starbucks countering with $15 minimum wage, other improvements
For more than a year, Starbucks officials have been touting improvements for workers, including increasing the company’s starting wage to $15 per hour nationally by Aug. 1 and incremental increases thereafter. New hires already are getting the new starting wage.
Roman, who earns $12 per hour, said a $15 minimum wage is not sufficient “if you’re allowed to work only 20 to 22 hours per week.”
A living wage in El Paso County was $14.34 per hour at the start of 2022 for a single, full-time worker with no children, and much higher for workers with children, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Living Wage Calculator.
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Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, who retired in 2018, returned to the company in April as interim chief executive officer with a mission to restore the company’s once shiny reputation and good relationship with its workers.
In a May 3 letter to workers, after visiting stores around the country, Schultz wrote that the visits “only deepened my commitment and affirmed the need to take bold action to restore your trust and belief in Starbucks. “
That same day, he announced several improvements for stores, additional wage increases for certain workers, improved worker training, a phone app for workers to better communicate with company officials, and other changes.
Casey Moore, a barista and union organizer at a Starbucks store in Buffalo, where the Starbucks union campaign was born in the summer of 2021, said the higher minimum wage and other changes are Starbucks’ response to union organizing efforts.
“Ultimately it comes down to having a democratic workplace. This is a billion-dollar company that made record-breaking profits during a global pandemic” while many workers can’t pay their bills, Moore said.
Starbucks’ sales increased 24% in fiscal year 2021 to $29 billion, and its profit increased 352% to $4.2 billion, including $864.5 million from the sale of its ownership in a South Korea joint venture, the company reported.
The union organizing campaign is “worker driven and worker led” with support of the union, Moore said.
The union is adding more ammo. It recently announced it will form a Strike and Defense Fund for the Starbucks campaign with initial funding of $1 million.
Union election petitions filed for 270 Starbucks stores so far
About 270 corporate-owned Starbucks stores have filed petitions with the NLRB for union elections in 37 states, including 10 stores in seven Texas cities, including the Farah store in El Paso, a Workers United official reported.
Out of those, 123 elections have been held with 103 wins, 12 losses, and eight pending challenges.
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Once an election is certified by the NLRB, Starbucks officials must negotiate a labor contract with the union. Each store is to have its own contract as it now stands, Moore said.
For the union to win, it needs just over 50% of ballots cast by store workers to approve representation by the union, a union official said.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter.
