Workers at second Connecticut Starbucks vote in a union. Now they have to win a contract.

Workers at a Starbucks in Vernon have voted in a union, the second in the chain of coffee shops in Connecticut.

That was the easy part.

The company and union, Starbucks Workers United, now must negotiate a contract that could take a few years.

“The company keeps walking out of negotiations and refusing to cooperate,” Travis Glenney, a shift supervisor at the state’s first unionized Starbucks, at Corbin’s Corner in West Hartford, said Monday as Vernon colleagues celebrated their union win.

Starbucks’ press office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

However, Mellody Hobson, chairman of Starbucks’ board, said at the company’s annual meeting in March the company is “negotiating in good faith” and wants a constructive relationship with the union.

“Fifty years of experience also shows us that by having a direct relationship with our partners, we’ve been able to grow and succeed,” she said. “So we appreciate the question, we’re leaning into the issue and we’re working hard to make sure we hear the concerns that are out there.”

The Vernon store on Thursday voted 13-1 to organize a union, Dara Rinaldi, a shift supervisor, said understaffing and scheduling problems were key issues that prompted employees to organize a union.

It joins 192 other Starbucks in the U.S. where union representation elections were scheduled, with 171 certified, according to the National Labor Relations Board. The company reported 9,861 stores in North America as of October 2021.

The NLRB said Starbucks must begin bargaining in good faith at stores where the union has been certified as the representative.

Christian Sweeney, deputy organizing director at the AFL-CIO, the national federation of labor unions, said bargaining in good faith is a legal standard that has “lots and lots of conditions,”

It includes several obligations, including not to make certain changes without bargaining with the union and to not bypass the union and deal directly with employees it represents.

Kate Bronfenbrenner, who teaches research methods, organizing and contract negotiating at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, said a contract is negotiated at 75% of companies within three years of workers organizing a union. The other 25% take more than three years to reach agreement on a first contract. And 40% negotiate an agreement in the first year.

“There’s no force to force them to bargain with a union except unions organizing customers, suppliers and the general public,” Bronfenbrenner said.

Union activity has grown in recent years as workers in industries as varied as warehouses and others organize. From Oct. 1, 2021, to June 30, union representation petitions filed at the NLRB increased 58%, to 1,892 from 1,197 in the same period last year, the agency reported.

Lengthy contract negotiations threaten to undermine the credibility of unions. An employer could withdraw its recognition, saying the union no longer has a majority status and the union could face a vote to be decertified as the bargaining representative, Bronfenbrenner said.

“Under our labor law the power is in the employer’s hand unless the union organizes the community,” she said.

U.S, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., visited the Vernon Starbucks to show his support for the union.

“They are fighting basically for simple fairness, fair pay, fair hours,” he told a small gathering of workers.

“I really hope they do the right thing,” said Blumenthal, who is seeking a third term. “Bargain with your workers.”

Sweeney said unions need to continue organizing during negotiations as they did when they persuaded workers to join.

Glenney said workers are are “holding steady” as they wait for contract talks to begin.

“Our next move is to talk to other folks and see where the third store in Connecticut will be,” he said.

Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com.