To follow up on our coverage of Starbucks ending their seemingly invulnerable streak with dozens of the company’s 8,000+ cafes seeing increased organizing activity, the coffeehouse giant is now facing off against at least two dozen petition filings across the United States. Although this shift only springs from a small percentage of total Starbucks locations, other small-footprint retailers should take note. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for example, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers began asking Colectivo Coffee to put an end to company attempts to appeal a vote in favor of union representation.
Meanwhile, workers at a Manhattan REI store petitioned for a union election for approximately 115 employees. For this retailer that specializes in outdoor recreation services, this would mark the first store (out of 170) to formally seek representation for collective bargaining.
Interestingly, immediately after the first rash of Starbucks petitions were filed, and after the REI petition dropped, two different retailers called us, concerned about their exposure being located near these locations. In one case it was a similar business, but in another, the only similarity was that it was another small footprint retailer located near the petitioned store. In response to their requests, we created a new union activity alert service. See the next article for details.
In Washington, D.C., Politics & Prose became the first organized bookstore in the city with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 now representing half of the store’s 100+ employees. Likewise, two-thirds of the Democratic National Committee’s own workers voted in favor of representation by the Service Employees International Union.
Elsewhere, an Alabama Amazon warehouse will vote for a second time on unionization (following organizing efforts by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union), and in New York City, the Jewish Museum’s workers voted to join the UAW, following the lead of workers at art institutes in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
