Starbucks is finally coming to the bargaining table to negotiate a national contract with Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), the union that represents a growing number of coffeeshop workers.
The company says it sent out letters of intent to 234 unionized stores, offering three-week windows this month for worker bargaining teams to meet with company officials.
To date, only three Starbucks stores have begun contract negotiations, and no store is close to settling on a contract.
"We look forward to these negotiations and hopefully setting dates and securing locations for contract bargaining," Starbucks said in a statement.
SBWU has accused the company of stalling negotiations in hopes that union members would become discouraged and look for new jobs, allowing Starbucks to replace them with new employees who are not union supporters.
According to the union, a national bargaining committee of about 50 workers is now meeting weekly to map out strategies for the contract negotiations. They have already unveiled a set of proposals addressing health and safety issues and nondiscrimination in the workplace.
"We've been planning for months," Jasmine Leli, a bargaining committee member from Buffalo told Bloomberg News. "We want to make sure everyone feels seen and heard." Buffalo is the site of the first unionized Starbucks in the country.
Union organizers say they still have to contend with delaying tactics by the employer, and constant harassment and intimidation of union activists, including firings.
Meanwhile, 30 members of Congress — including Seattle's own Rep. Pramila Jayapal — issued a public letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz demanding a fair bargaining process and an end to Starbucks' union-busting tactics.
"We have a concern about reports that pay increases and benefits are only being offered to non-unionized stores," the lawmakers wrote. "If accurate, such disparate treatment could set an alarming precedent that, in our opinion, is not consistent with US labor laws, including the National Labor Relations Act."
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who organized the congressional letter, expressed hope that Starbucks will alter its current aggressively anti-union policy, and live up to its progressive image.
"If [Starbucks] ends up being supportive of unionization, they could set a model for the food and drink industry in America," Khanna told MarketWatch. "Then they could rightly say they're being progressive."
The current wave of union organizing at Starbucks began in December 2021 with a store in Buffalo, New York.
According to The Stand, an online publication of the Washington State Labor Council, to date 247 Starbucks stores in 35 states have won union elections, including 16 in Washington state. Dozens more Starbucks stores have filed for a union and are awaiting NLRB-supervised elections, including three more in Washington.
SBWU has lost elections in only 54 stores.