Over two years ago, Starbucks Workers United celebrated their first victory at a Buffalo, New York cafe. The union has since claimed 380+ unionized cafes out of nearly 9,000+ corporate-owned Starbucks locations in the United States. In the meantime, however, zero contracts have materialized between the company and the union, and negotiations ground to a halt six months ago, with both sides finding themselves at an impasse.
This bargaining table stagnation on a first contract surely contributed to a few handfuls of decertification filings from baristas, but over the past week, an unexpected development occurred: Starbucks requested to reopen negotiations with Workers United, starting in January 2024.
The company previously claimed to have participated in a triple-digit number of failed bargaining sessions with the union, so what gives now?
Starbucks VP Sara Kelly published the request letter on the company’s website and declared that the deadlock has “not helped Starbucks, Workers United, or, most importantly, our partners.” Further, Starbucks wishes “to reach contracts for represented stores in the coming year.”
Hmm, that doesn’t explain much, so inferences shall need to be made. First, let’s run down the most recent legal blows:
- NLRB GC Jennifer Abruzzo has been notably devoting many of her 10(j) injunction efforts towards Starbucks, which has appealed to the Supreme Court while requesting that the board be held to more consistent standards than what is on display.
- A U.S. appeals court sided with the NLRB regarding Starbucks’ claim that a March 2022 Workers United win at the Seattle flagship store – through a vote held by mail ballot – should be rendered invalid.
- An administrative law judge ruled that Starbucks engaged in coercive interrogation at Salt Lake City cafes that unionized in 2022.
- An NLRB judge ruled that the company used its dress code to unlawfully restrict union paraphernalia worn by workers on the clock.
- The Strategic Organizing Center, a shareholder of Starbucks Corporation, recently announced it has nominated three director candidates – Maria Echaveste, Hon. Joshua Gotbaum, and Wilma Liebman – for election to the Starbucks Board of Directors at the upcoming 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The SOC is a coalition of labor unions, including the SEIU, looking to put pressure on Starbucks to bargain.
- Now, the Teamsters are adding their voices to the chorus. Sean O’Brien’s union represents baristas at a Pennsylvania location and accused Starbucks of “bad faith and surface bargaining.”
Overall, it doesn’t take much of a stretch to realize that Biden’s NLRB will continue to drag the company through as much mud as possible, and courts will frequently side with the board. What other reasons could be contributing to Starbucks’ change of heart on bargaining?
This could be a far-reaching effect of the recent UAW contracts with the Big Three. With Shawn Fain announcing a push to unionize at least a dozen more automakers, Starbucks might fear falling afoul of any public perception that might shift against corporations as a result. Given the company’s long-standing reputation as a progressive employer, Starbucks might be acting to preserve that status by at least reopening negotiations, even if Workers United’s bad behavior could only lead to more stagnation.
Possible shareholder pressure over bad PR wrought by Workers United – due to continuous walkouts, including multiple Red Cup Rebellion strikes, and due to the union appropriating the company’s logo and pulling it into the political firestorm surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – could also be part of the equation. Perhaps
Then again, Starbucks VP Kelly requested that upcoming bargaining sessions occur without recording, audio, or video, which SBWU has resisted thus far, so we might never truly know the precise answer to the “why” regarding Starbucks reaching out to the union. Yet rest assured that more developments will come.
