Less than two weeks after a strike, a Green Bay Starbucks won its union election
GREEN BAY - The Starbucks on Main and Auto Plaza, 2230 Main St., on Tuesday became the fifth in Wisconsin to successfully unionize.
The employees voted 12-8 to unionize in an election that was monitored by the National Labor Relations Board.
Aji Rauworth, a barista at the store, said they are excited for their future.
"We're relieved and we're excited to be part of the family," Rauworth said. "Just looking outside of Starbucks, even just like the union movement in general, very excited to be part of that."
Some of the policies the Green Bay location would like to propose include a zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment and abuse as well as a nondiscrimination proposal.
"The proposals strengthen the commitment to providing a work environment that is always free of unlawful discrimination, harassment and bullying, provided more specific cases in writing," Rauworth said.
A majority of the employees signed union authorization cards and a petition for union recognition from their management and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz on Oct. 10.
In an email signed by employees and sent to Schultz, the workers said, "It is our belief that the working conditions we are regularly forced to endure disrupt out ability to do our jobs with dignity, and taking collective action to change said conditions is our best, and only, way forward."
This is the first Starbucks in Green Bay and the most recent in Wisconsin to join the Starbucks Workers United movement, a nationwide project that organizers say is meant to create better and safer workplaces for all Starbucks employees.
Employees at the Green Bay location said they are being asked to do more work and are not receiving proper compensation.
"Every shift supervisor is currently working full time with full-time availability, and they're being requested to open their availability, so that if somebody calls out, they can be called in, but there's no change to the compensation package for being asked to work that much more and be expected to come in on a day off," Charles Poulter, a barista trainer at the store said. "They're just being told this is a new requirement for your position."
Just over a month later, on Nov. 17, employees of the same Starbucks joined the nationwide movement, Red Cup Rebellion, where they participated in a work strike and handed out informational flyers and Starbucks Workers United branded cups.
Red Cup Rebellion was created this year by Starbucks Workers United as a nationwide unfair labor practice strike where Starbucks employees demand the company fully staffs all union stores and begins bargaining in good faith.
The Green Bay store will get its union certification followed by the signing of the contract, but first the store must sit down with the company to negotiate the contract.
Rauworth said the employees are hoping to negotiate a contract within the upcoming year, but the process could take much longer as the company gets to decide when they want to sit down with the store.
"No United States store that has unionized, including the store in Buffalo that unionized almost a year ago, has come to a contract," Rauworth said.
Other unionized Starbucks locations in Wisconsin are in Appleton, Oak Creek, Madison and Plover.
Over 300 Starbucks locations across the nation have filed for elections to be represented by Workers United, and more than 260 stores have won so far, according to a news release.
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Reach Jelissa Burns at 920-226-4241 or jburns1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @burns_jelissa or on Instagram at burns_jelissa.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: This Green Bay Starbucks became the fifth in the state to unionize
