Workers at two Starbucks stores in metro Atlanta have filed petitions for union elections, according to the group organizing employees of the coffee giant.
Workers in a Roswell Starbucks on Holcomb Bridge Road and an Alpharetta store at North Point and Haynes Bridge Road have asked the National Labor Relations Board to schedule a vote on whether they will be represented by Starbucks Workers United.
“I truly hope this can be a way to a better future for new laborers,” said Vivek Ghate, a one-year employee at the Roswell store, in a statement. “The union is, at the end of the day, a way for us to ensure that we receive holistically better treatment.”
Workers at more than 460 Starbucks stores accounting for about 10,500 employees have won union elections with the NLRB since the organizing campaign started in 2021. While there have been some negotiations, workers and the company have not reached an agreement on a single contract at any of those stores.
A company spokeswoman said Wednesday that the company wants a “bridge to a better future” for employees and accepts the idea of workers’ choice about being represented or not.
“At Starbucks, we believe that our direct relationship as partners is core to the experiences we create in our stores, and we respect our partners’ rights to have a choice on the topic of unions,” she said.
Founder Howard Schultz, who had returned to the company as interim chief executive, had adamantly opposed the union. But he is no longer with Starbucks.
Earlier this year, Starbucks and the union jointly announced they were making progress at the bargaining table. The company and Workers United agreed to talk about “a foundational framework designed to help achieve ratified bargaining agreements, resolve certain litigation and address other issues,” according to a statement from the company.
Starbucks has struggled lately with disappointing sales, a laggard stock price and a legal dispute between company and union about the use of the corporate logo.
Workers this week said they want higher wages and a better system for scheduling, long a complaint among company employees. Working at Starbucks, employees say, can be especially stressful for parents who do not know their on-duty schedules very far in advance.
Workers say they also want more “racial and gender equity,” according to a statement from Starbucks Workers United.
“If we don’t take care of our store partners, how can they take care of the customers? This is how we were trained and taught since this store was open,” said Danielle Stolton, a shift supervisor at the Alpharetta location, in a statement. “After many months of asking for help, following the company policy, it has become clear upper management didn’t hold these values at their core.”
Starbucks has struggled lately with disappointing sales, a laggard stock price and a legal dispute between company and union about the use of the corporate logo.
The labor group said the two metro Atlanta filings were among nine filed by workers this week, including stores in Arizona, Ohio, Washington, California and Vermont.
