The NLRB clearly wants to make an example out of Starbucks. The Board’s strongarm tactics still show no signs of slowing as the coffeehouse giant’s unionized baristas continue to inspire workers elsewhere.
The NLRB has now determined that Starbucks illegally forced out Jaz Brisack, one of the workers credited with launching the organizing movement that spread across the company. Brisack, a Rhodes Scholar, previously admitted to pursuing employment at Starbucks with the goal of organizing workers. Six months ago, she resigned from the company’s first organized location, now one of 270+ current unionized stores.
Another source of Starbucks union angst: the company added a credit-card tipping option to non-unionized locations. Given that this has been one of the key requests from unionized Starbucks locations, more frustration abounds while union members see non-unionized stores enjoy other exclusive perks on the job.
At a Starbucks location in Arizona, operations came to a halt when workers went on strike while expressing disappointment over unproductive contract negotiations. Those complaints haven’t discouraged copycat organizing drives at other companies:
- Peet’s Coffee: A batch of baristas voted “yes” at the chain’s first unionized location, and although workers at another location withdrew their NLRB petition, organizing efforts at other locations are expected to move forward.
- Sunergos Coffee: Workers at five Kentucky locations joined the National Conference of Firemen & Oilers, and as unlikely as that choice of union sounds, this would be the same union that scooped up a reported seventeen wins at Heine Brothers’ Coffee locations in 2022.
- Blank Street Coffee: This venture-backed upstart largely operates on an automated basis, including 60 locations in New York City, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Still, the company does employ a limited number of workers, who have now begun efforts to join the UFCW at a handful of locations.
