Starbucks workers file petition to unionize in Rochester

Starbucks workers in Rochester filed a petition to unionize on Monday, a first for the 50-year-old coffee retailer in the U.S. and the latest sign that the labor movement is stirring after decades of decline.

Workers from Buffalo, Rochester and Ithaca all announced their intentions to unionize on Monday, to join Starbucks Workers United and filed for union elections with the National Labor Relations Board, according to representatives from the Rochester & Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation. Locally, the two Rochester shop are the Mount Hope Avenue Starbucks and the Starbucks in the new Whole Foods plaza on Monroe Avenue in Brighton.

The move came on the same day that the first two unionized Starbucks stores (both in Buffalo) started to negotiate with corporate officials for a new contract. The company has actively fought unionization at its stores for decades, saying its stores function best when it works directly with employees.

Sixteen Starbucks stores across the country - including two in the Rochester region and three in Ithaca - filed paperwork to unionize on Monday, joining the rapidly growing effort to unionize.

“Our movement is only growing,” the labor union tweeted on Monday. “Partners around the country are standing up for what’s right and we couldn’t be more inspired!”

In a letter to the company, the Rochester stores said the goal is to "truly become partners with a voice alongside management."

Emma Brower, a barista at the Mount Hope Avenue store, said that in the past few years, "it became very clear that baristas have no say and that all of the power is in corporate's hands."

For example, she said, many bartistas felt that the company was putting profits before the health and safety of its workers when the company fully reopened Starbucks shops to indoor dining last year, during the Delta variant surge of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Yes, the company follows health and safety guidelines, Brower said, but workers were concerned but their objections were dismissed by management.

The Seattle-based company has actively fought unionization at its stores for decades, saying its stores function best when it works directly with employees.

The effort comes at a time of heightened labor unrest in the country. Thousands of workers were on strike at Deere & Co. last fall, and the labor board recently filed a complaint against Amazon, after they found that the company pressured workers to vote against a union at a Staten Island warehouse, allegedly promising to address grievances in exchange for voting against representation.

Labor shortages are giving workers a rare upper hand in wage negotiations. And Dan Graff, director of the Higgins Labor Program at the University of Notre Dame, said the pandemic gave many workers the time and space to rethink what they want from their jobs.

Starbucks spokesman Reggie Borges at the time the Buffalo Starbucks workers voted to unionize in December said the company hasn't yet determined its next steps, but noted that there were close votes at two of the Buffalo stores.

"Every partner matters. It's how we built the company and how we will continue to run the company," Borges said. "We will continue to focus on the best Starbucks experience we can deliver for every partner and our customers."

Workers at all three stores began voting by mail in November on whether they wanted to be represented by Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.

"It has been an unbelievably long road to get to this point," said Michelle Eisen, an 11-year employee at the Elmwood store. "As of today, we have done it, in spite of everything the company has thrown at us."

It will take more than a month to reach this next step with the National Labor Relations Board, according to the workers.

Kent Wong, the director of the UCLA Labor Center, says that it's a big deal for even one Starbucks location to vote for a union, calling it "a symbolic victory for the labor movement."

Wong noted that it could not only galvanize workers at other Starbucks locations but also at fast-food chains.

"People are looking at what is happening in Buffalo," Wong said.

But Matthew Dimick, an associate professor of law at the University of Buffalo, noted that Buffalo has a long tradition of labor organizing from its industrial past.

"Most Buffalonians probably see unions as a positive, and are therefore more willing to join and form unions than in other parts of the country," Dimick said.

Rossann Williams, Starbucks executive vice president and president of North America, told The Associated Press that the Buffalo area also had acute problems coming out of the pandemic, including staff shortages and equipment problems.

"We didn't have the right support here on the ground," Williams said. The company has hired more than 200 people in Buffalo over the past few months and turned one store into a training center to bring workers up to speed more quickly, she added.

Union backers at the three Buffalo stores that held elections say Starbucks had chronic problems like understaffing and faulty equipment even before the pandemic. They want more input on pay and store operations.

Starbucks insists its more than 8,000 company-owned U.S. stores function best when it works directly with its employees, which it calls "partners." Many employees in the Buffalo area work at more than one store depending on demand, Starbucks says, and it wants to have the flexibility to move them between stores.

Starbucks asked the labor board to hold one vote with all 20 of its Buffalo-area stores, but the board rejected that request, saying store-by-store votes were appropriate under labor law.

In a letter to Starbucks' U.S. employees in December, Starbucks President and CEO Kevin Johnson reminded them of the company's generous benefits, including paid parental and sick leave and free college tuition through Arizona State University. Late last year, the company also announced pay increases, saying all its U.S. workers will earn at least $15 – and up to $23 – per hour by next summer.

But backers of the union say Starbucks can do more.

"If Starbucks can find the money to pay their CEO nearly $15 million in compensation, I think maybe they can afford to pay their workers a decent wage with decent benefits," said U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, in a recent Twitter post. Sanders held a virtual town hall with Buffalo Starbucks workers earlier this week.

Johnson earned $14.7 million in salary and stock awards in the company's 2020 fiscal year.

If the votes do get certified and a store opts to unionize, Starbucks is legally obligated to begin the process of collective bargaining with Workers United, said Cathy Creighton, the director of Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations Buffalo Co-Lab.

In some cases, companies have closed a location rather than deal with a union. But that's difficult for a retailer like Starbucks, since it would be illegal to close one store and then open another nearby, Creighton said.

Creighton called the union victory at the Elmwood store an "incredibly momentous occasion for working people in America." She noted that it has been almost impossible to organize the food and beverage industry because the employers depend on a low wage workforce that turns over frequently.

"To get a group of people to stay together and weather the campaign that Starbucks waged against them is pretty extraordinary," she added.

Starbucks has shown a willingness to bargain outside the U.S. In Victoria, Canada, workers at a Starbucks store voted to unionize in August 2020. It took Starbucks and the United Steelworkers union nearly a year to reach a collective bargaining agreement, which was ratified by workers in July.

In the U.S., there are around 4,000 Starbucks outlets in grocery stores, airports, casinos and other locations that are unionized. But they are licensed by Starbucks and owned and operated by separate companies.

Contributing: Dee-Ann Durbin and Carolyn Thompson, Associated Press

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Starbucks workers file petition to unionize in Rochester