More than 300 Starbucks stores have held union elections in less than a year, a remarkable feat. But now workers blame 'scorched-earth' union busting by Starbucks for a slowdown in the momentum.
Marchers raise picket signs during a"Fight Starbucks' Union Busting" rally held in Seattle in April.
But they hide another plain truth, which is that unionized stores make up less than 3% of the 9,000 company-operated Starbucks stores around the country. What's more, the number of stores petitioning to hold union elections has dropped dramatically in recent months. The flood of activity in the first half of the year, with a high of 71 petitions filed in March, gave way to a summer lull, with eight petitions filed in August.
Union organizers say that the company's tactics are working: Starbucks' sustained campaign has had its intended chilling effect. Almost immediately, Workers United filed an unfair labor practice charge against Starbucks, accusing the company of misleading employees and violating labor law by threatening benefits amid a union campaign.
Berg, a shift supervisor who uses the pronoun"they," transferred to the Falls Church store after spearheadingat another Starbucks location 10 miles away. Since then, turnover at the new store has been high. A lot of the original union supporters left for college or other jobs soon after the election. They've been replaced by newcomers who don't know much, if anything, about the organizing effort.
"The penalties for breaking the National Labor Relations Act are quite weak, and that's a huge problem because it doesn't really serve as a deterrent," says Rebecca Givan, associate professor of labor studies at Rutgers University."Employers decide that it's just worth it to break the law because the consequences are fairly mild."At the store level, union supporters have concluded that Starbucks just doesn't care about labor laws.
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