Starbucks Workers United

Starbucks Workers United union logo with a fist holding a coffee cup

More than 280 Starbucks around the country have unionized, including two Starbucks stores located in Santa Cruz (“2 Santa Cruz Starbucks Links to an external site.”).  Starbucks Workers United brings together Starbucks workers and the union Workers United, to form a collective of Starbucks Partners across the United States.  Their aim is to organize across the entire coffee industry, including Starbucks competitors, to form an industrial union. 

In response Starbucks has fired a number of employees involved in union organizing and threatened to close stores, actions that have been  ruled a violation of labor law by the National Labor Relations Board Links to an external site. (NRLB). NRLB found in a number of decisions that Starbucks has committed 130 violations to date, including illegally monitoring and firing organizers, calling the police on workers, and closing a store that attempted to organize.

In response to these union busting attempts, Starbucks Workers United has called upon their employer to “to sign the Non- interference Principles to enable workers to choose whether or not to unionize without fear of reprisal and to provide a level playing field” (“Starbucks Workers Links to an external site.”).

Note: As Starbucks Workers United is an example of a current organizing effort, some of this content may be out of date, depending on the outcome of ongoing negotiations.

Questions

  • Given that such a large number of people visit Starbucks on a daily basis, what leverage might workers at Starbucks have?
  • What tactics might you employ if you wished to draw public attention to your organizing efforts as a barista?

Starbucks Workers United. Logo Links to an external site.

Copitch, Josh. "2 Santa Cruz Starbucks Stores Vote to Unionize, First in California." CNN Wire Service Links to an external site., 12 May 2022. 

Starbucks Workers United. FAQ Links to an external site.s.

Scheiber, Noam. “Starbucks Violated Labor Law in Buffalo Union Drive, Judge Rules Links to an external site..”  New York Times, 1 Mar 2023.

Starbucks Workers United. Newsletter Links to an external site..