Starbucks workers are busy this fall, and not just with making pumpkin spice lattes. This month, workers from hundreds of unionized Starbucks stores are expected to sit down for collective bargaining for the first time, while others will vote in still more union elections to come.
So far, more than 300 Starbucks stores in close to three dozen states have had union elections — a stunning number, given not a single company-owned store had a union at this time last year. Even more remarkable is that 80% of them, or around 245 stores, have gone in favor of forming a union.
In the past week, Starbucks locations in Washington, D.C., Albuquerque, N.M., and Westlake, Ohio, became the latest to join the national union Workers United.
The numbers showcase how Starbucks baristas have turned a grassroots campaign into a national labor movement with lightning speed.
But they hide another plain truth, which is that unionized stores make up less than 3% of the 9,000 company-operated Starbucks stores around the country. What's more, the number of stores petitioning to hold union elections has dropped dramatically in recent months. The flood of activity in the first half of the year, with a high of 71 petitions filed in March, gave way to a summer lull, with eight petitions filed in August.
Organizers blame the slowdown in their momentum on what they call Starbucks' "scorched-earth" campaign to crush the union.
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