500 Starbucks stores have now unionized across the United States
That’s still only 3% of US Starbucks locations
On Monday, a group of baristas in Bellingham, Washington were the latest members to join the Starbucks Workers United ranks, as the store became the 500th location to unionize since 2021.
Back then, in the relatively brief interim between Howard Schultz’s second and third terms as the company’s CEO, it was a store in Buffalo, New York that made history by becoming the first Starbucks branch to organize officially. These days, a new location unionizing is a weekly, or even daily, occurrence, with data from Unionelections.org tracking the steady trickle of successful Starbucks votes.
The red cup rebels
While Starbucks has long been known for referring to employees as “partners”, it seems like many of the issues that its coffee makers have expressed through the years have largely fallen on deaf ears. In September, for example, workers at the Washington branch and 8 other organizing stores sent a letter to Brian Niccol, the company’s new $20 billion boss, expressing concerns over staffing, scheduling, better benefits, and wages. The Buffalo, New York unionists were making many of the same complaints back in December 2021.
Despite the constant flow of labor complaints and the recent milestone, just 3% of Starbucks stores have now unionized.
Interestingly, while American industrial action has been on the rise as of late, especially during the Hot Strike Summer of 2023, just 10% of US workers reportedly belonged to a union last year, the lowest membership rate since records began in 1983.
