On Dec. 8, Starbucks was virtually union-free. Today, less than two months later, about 40 stores are in various stages of organizing, and the tally is growing at the rate of roughly five units per week.
To hear employees tell it, each and every effort is a homegrown crusade, a standalone drive sparked by a mutual feeling within the staff that Starbucks corporate wasn’t listening to them. If it weren’t for the ragtag efforts to unionize, the more idealistic among them might have organized a fundraiser for a local cause or led a boycott against a known polluter.
Skeptics dismiss the union inroads as more of a dribble than a wave, the result of a few dozen New Age-y baristas deciding they don’t like being bossed around. After all, only two cafes to date have actually been turned into union shops, out of a system of 15,000 U.S. stores.
Besides, they contend, it’s a problem for Starbucks, not the industry.
Those dismissals ignore subtle signs that more is happening than what the casual chain observer (and possible future unionization target) might realize.
In filings seeking federal regulators’ permission for a Starbucks unit to vote on unionizing, the organizing party is identified as Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The parent group is one of the nation’s largest and most powerful unions, with about 2 million members. It’s been striving for decades to make inroads into the chain restaurant market, though with virtually no success until Dec. 9, when the first Starbucks store voted to organize.
Pro-union baristas have acknowledged that Workers United is paying the legal expenses for their organizing efforts.
In Buffalo, N.Y., where the unit-by-unit effort to organize Starbucks began, employees are being coached by Richard Bensinger, a past national organizing director for the AFL-CIO and a legend in the labor movement. He refers to the baristas as Gen U, or Generation Union, according to the workers.
Initial appearances aside, the battle is shaping up as a classic and familiar struggle between a major union hellbent on organizing an industry and a leader of that field who’s determined to resist.
“Oh, it’s on,” said Franklin Coley, the partner who specializes in union issues for the government-relations consulting and lobbying firm Align Public Strategies.
How far will it go?
“The trend line says it’s not going to stop,” Coley continues. For the union, “it’s in the momentum stage. They’re picking up the low-hanging fruit now, so they’re gaining momentum.”
He notes how many units—more than half a dozen—have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board just in the past week to okay an election. “Half to three-quarters of the workers in those units are engaged politically and ideologically aligned,” he said. The SEIU “will follow the opportunity.”
That assessment fits what employees of the two unionized Buffalo stores have indicated. In a guest appearance on Rumble, the podcast of professional gadfly and movie maker Michael Moore, Starbucks barista and Buffalo union proponent Casey Moore said she and fellow new union members are flooded with requests from Starbucks colleagues in other markets for tips on how to organize.
She and fellow podcast guest Jaz Brisack did not say if those queries are also coming from workers at other restaurant chains.
“I would not be surprised if it’s happening” within other systems, said Coley. “There are definitely organizing efforts aimed at the big ones.”
He notes that Fight for $15 and a Union, another SEIU affiliate, has been saying for 15 years that McDonald’s employees need an advocate to boost their pay and improve their working conditions. The group has also called for pushback on the management practices of Chipotle and Jack in the Box, to name a few of its targets.
Restaurant chains with recently unionized units:
Source: Restaurant Business
Yet another SEIU affiliate, One Fair Wage, has twice filed lawsuits that accuse Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants of mistreating employees by using a tip credit in states where that employer concession is permitted.
Starbucks’ unsuccessful efforts to contain the pro-union fervor has yet to rouse much concern within the rest of the restaurant industry. During the recent ICR investment conference, for instance, not a single publicly owned chain voiced concern during their formal presentations that the coffee giant’s union problem could spread to them.
Coley sees the behind-the-curtains involvement of the SEIU in Starbucks’ unionization battle as a neon sign that more union activity is coming the industry’s way.
“It should be more concerning that the SEIU has taken a position in this effort,” he said. “They’re really good at this. Their win rate is one of the highest. They’re really experienced and seasoned. This is not a ragtag group.”
Malcolm Knapp, who’s tracked the chain restaurant sector for decades for his KnappTrack syndicated sales-reporting service, says the pandemic and the employment interruptions it triggered have drastically changed the situation for employees, operators and unions.
“The union activity is working because people have had time to think about the nature of work and what they want to do,” he explains. “There’s a complete rethink of, ‘What do I want to do?’ You can see the type of things they’re aiming for. Higher pay is one, but also working conditions, the chance to advance a career.”
Plus, he says, massive layoffs by restaurant chains during the pandemic have further strained employees’ trust in their employer. “Unions are basically formed where there’s a lack of trust,” Knapp said.
The movement also feeds on itself, he adds. “If enough units get unionized, that starts creating a buzz,” he explains. “’If they’re doing it, should we be doing it? Why are they doing it? And how’s it working for them?”
Coley notes that many of the Starbucks units pushing for unionization are high-profile markets with a robust media presence: Atlanta, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Denver, Phoenix, northern California.
Unionization has held relatively steady in the restaurant industry despite the organizational efforts of the SEIU and unions such as HERE United and Industrial Workers of the World, the group that successfully organized the Burgerville fast-food chain. Only 1.2% of all restaurant workers belonged to a union last year, a level unchanged from 2020 and down just a whisker from 2019.
That’s in the face of a clear downturn in union membership overall. Today, 10.8% of the total U.S. workforce is unionized, down from about 12.3% during the massive layoffs of the Great Recession in 2009.
Restaurant unionization has remained at a low but steady rate:
Give it a few years
Coley notes that the SEIU and other unions that have secured a toehold within the industry in recent months will have to prove themselves in a year or two if they hope to hang onto their recent gains.
“Next year, the following year, the year after that, that’s when the ROI from these unions is going to be looked at hard,” he said. Members will want to see a payback for giving a slice of their income every paycheck to these sizeable labor organizations.
He also thinks that the SEIU’s penetration of Starbucks will eventually slow. “At some time they’re going to want to go into units where everything is fine and workers aren’t as excited about organizing,” he said. “That’s a different ballgame. That’s the ballgame they’ve been losing for the last 30 years."
“At some point, it will stall out.”
Knapp notes that an historical weakness of the restaurant business has ironically been its best defense against unionization: “We have such a high turnover rate.” Today’s pro-union staff could be replaced in a month by new hires who don’t see a reason to share their paychecks with a group that may be larger and deeper-pocketed than their employer.
But the key, he said, will be the psychology of the restaurant worker and how effectively restaurants address that mindset.
“If they have a good culture and they’re perceived as fair, there’s no reason for workers to have a union,” he said. “It comes down to people feeling they’re treated right and having trust in the management.”
*Although the employees of only five stores are unionized, the regional chain has voluntarily rolled all changes secured through collective bargaining at those five units to the whole 39-store chain.