Starbucks, Workers United Making Significant Progress, Commit to Working Together Towards Reaching A Collective Bargaining Agreement

By Moon Harper

Apr 27, 2024 01:51 AM EDT

Starbucks and Workers United, representing approximately 400 of its cafes, announced on Friday in a joint release that they have made significant progress, concluding a two-day contract bargaining session.

The two parties engaged in a two-day discussions about the process to resolve grievances, details concerning the union's representation of Starbucks baristas, and other related topics held in Atlanta, which marked the first time in nearly a year that Starbucks and Workers United came to the bargaining table, signaling a significant development in ending their bitter stalemate.

Starbucks Ending The Two-Year Battle with The Union

The coffee giant engaged in a more than two-year-long battle with the union, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that has been advocating for various priorities, including higher wages and more consistent scheduling, among other concerns.

This week's discussions represent the closest progress toward a collective bargaining agreement that any of the unionized Starbucks locations, comprising a small fraction of the company's total U.S. footprint, have reached. However, there remains a significant journey ahead, "but we are committed to working together," said in a joint statement.

According to the release, Starbucks and the union intend to reconvene in late May to continue developing the framework meant to be the basis of each store contract. After that foundation is built, individual stores will proceed to negotiate and ratify their respective contracts.

Labor laws do not necessitate a collective bargaining agreement despite mandating the employer and the union engage in good-faith bargaining. However, workers who lose confidence in the union after a year can petition for decertification, which imposes a time limit on negotiations.

Starbucks' Unionization Efforts Moving Forward

Since 2021, over 400 Starbucks stores, with over 10,000 employees nationwide, have voted to unionize. Starbucks has consistently opposed unionization efforts since the beginning of the campaign and has been accused of unlawfully harassing, intimidating, and terminating employees involved.

This week, Starbucks presented its case before the Supreme Court to advocate for the application of traditional rules for preliminary injunctions when federal district courts assess National Labor Review Board (NLRB) requests for extraordinary injunctions. These injunctions are legal tools used by courts to compel parties to take specific actions or refrain from certain activities. For instance, the NLRB reinstated seven Starbucks employees who had been terminated during a unionization campaign in 2022.

Starbucks and Workers United agreed to resume talks in February amid ongoing mediation discussions over litigation. Starbucks filed a lawsuit against Workers United in federal court in Iowa in October, seeking to prevent the union from using the name "Starbucks Workers United" and claiming that the union's pro-Palestine social media post following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel harmed its reputation. In response, the union filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania federal court, seeking approval to continue using the company's name and a similar logo.

Allegations have also arisen regarding Starbucks providing benefits to non-unionized stores while withholding them from organized employees in May 2022. As of March, these benefits were active at more than 200 stores represented by Workers United.