The Federalist BY: SARAH ST. ONGE
Despite insisting that national elections include mail-in voting, Starbucks is cracking down on its employees’ mail-in unionization efforts.
Efforts to organize have dominated Starbucks’ internal dialogues throughout the last two years, even before the Elmwood store in Buffalo, New York, was the first to successfully unionize in 2021. Since then, more than 200 stores are now members of Starbucks Workers United, with more than 300 more headed to a vote. More than 10,000 Starbucks employees (partners) have signed the new union pledge.
For a company as progressive as Starbucks, one might assume unionization would be welcome. Founder Howard Schultz himself utilizes a crisis point in his own childhood to illustrate the benefit of organization: His father was left unable to work after he broke his ankle, leaving his family struggling to make ends meet, with no income or medical insurance.
Protecting workers is what Starbucks is supposed to be all about, after all. Starbucks loves to share that they spend more on employee benefits than they do on anything else, including coffee.
However, despite this, Starbucks is strongly opposed to its partners’ unionization efforts. To dissuade partners from unionizing, the company is offering captive audience meetings, increased benefits packages with extended-release dates meant to forestall any new stores’ attempts at organizing, the ousting of CEO Kevin Johnson, and the return of Schultz as interim CEO.
