Case Controversy
With over 350,000 employees spread between more than 30,000 stores,
Starbucks is the largest and most industry-dominating coffee company in
the world. Since 1971, they have been undergoing rapid expansion and
development, quickly growing into the coffee giant it is today alongside
other names like Tim Horton’s and Dunkin Donuts. One reason businesses
like these can grow so fast is the ready supply of low-skilled and
low-paid labor. When opening a new store in a new area, workers of
practically any background and skill level can work at Starbucks with no
prior experience. The lack of skilled work and experience in environments
like Starbucks can cause a lack of job security and fear of being
replaced. Workers at businesses like Starbucks have rapidly been
attempting to organize and form unions to have a louder voice within the
company. “After years of low pay, tough working conditions, and few
benefits, unionization is having a moment in the food and beverage
industry,” (McCarthy). Another factor influencing the desire to organize
for higher pay and better conditions is the COVID-19 pandemic. With the
cost of basic needs like food and gas going up, and wages remaining
stagnant, unions are beginning to have greater appeal to underpaid and
overworked employees in all sorts of industries.
Gen Z battles to bring unions to Starbucks. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58540250
Workers' rights to form a union were officially made a law in the United
States in 1935, with the passage of the National Labor Relations Act
(McCarthy). The act stated that employers are required, in good faith, to
negotiate and bargain with any officially recognized union of their
employees. The company may choose to recognize these unions voluntarily,
or in cases like Starbucks’, may not recognize the union. If this is the
case, then it is up to an election process within the National Labor
Relations Board, the government agency responsible for managing union
elections and disputes between workers and employers.
The drive for unionization within Starbucks has gained momentum since
December 2021, when two stores in Buffalo, New York became the first to
unionize (Hsu). Now, more than 60 stores in over 19 states have begun to
push for unionization to secure better wages, benefits, and safer
conditions, and Starbucks has started pushing back (McCarthy). As soon as
the workers in the Buffalo stores filed for a union election with the
National Labor Relations Board, Starbucks asked that the vote be delayed.
In addition to asking the NLRB to delay the union election, Starbucks also
asked the agency to prohibit Starbucks workers from organizing
individually, arguing that all 20 Starbucks stores in the Buffalo region
should be required to vote together (McCarthy). Both requests were denied
by the NLRB, and the vote went forward in favor of the union. In early
February, seven Starbucks workers were fired from their jobs as baristas
in Memphis, Tennessee. The company claimed this was due to “multiple
violations of company's safety and security policies,” but for fired
barista Kylie Throckmorton, it was not a coincidence that all seven of
those fired from the store were involved in starting a union.
These are just some examples of Starbucks Corporation trying to slow or
stop the forming of unions amongst its employees, but these attempts have
not been very successful. These efforts to stop unionization have even
been observed to have the opposite effect, like for Hayleigh Fagan who
cited her reason for unionizing as receiving a company-wide letter from
the Starbucks Vice President Denise Nelsen telling employees not to
unionize. A similar example of high-ranking members of Starbucks showing
their disapproval of the unionization was on April 11, 2022, when acting
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz “...lashed out at a coffee chain barista who
was leading a unionization drive at one of the company’s California
locations, telling the worker: ‘If you hate Starbucks so much, why don’t
you go somewhere else?’” (Zilber, 2022). This comment sparked even further
controversy. The following weekend saw six more shops in the New York area
alone and one in Boston, Massachusetts deciding in favor of unionizing
(Zilber). It seems the more Starbucks attempts to lash out against unions,
the more positive attention these unions are gathering
