In the United States, the historic birth of a union in Starbucks cafes – archyde

Cries of joy and hugs erupted, Thursday, December 9, at the announcement of the results of a historic vote, which confirms the creation of the first union in a Starbucks establishment in the United States.

“It is the culmination of a long road”, responded Michelle Eisen, employed for over eleven years in the cafe in question, Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in the northeast of the country. The battle has been so hard, she explains, “With everything Starbucks threw in our faces”.

Two stars from the left wing of the Democratic Party quickly congratulated the employees on Twitter, the senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders hailing a win “Historical”, while the representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accompanied his message with a raised fist.

Hell yeah! Nothing like the smell of union coffee in the morning ☕️✊? Congrats to @SBWorkersUnited in Buffalo for… https://t.co/A9Q6Bx7uoc

– AOC (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)

Earlier today, no sign of the historic vote was visible at the facility on Elmwood Avenue. The waiters just rushed to prepare customers’ orders. “They are part of my daily life and it is normal that they have a decent salary”, remarked one of them, Steve Boyd, a 60-year-old lawyer, when he left the establishment. If it is necessary to create a union to have better working conditions, “So I support them. “

Intense cadences

Like the unionization attempt at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama in the spring, the Starbucks worker campaign has gained attention far beyond the streets of Buffalo. It reflects the discontent of employees determined to fight, at a time when the dynamics of the labor market are favorable to them, notes Cedric de Leon, professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. While many employers struggle to recruit, “The bargaining power of employees is very high at the moment”, he explains, referring to the many strikes that have punctuated the month of October or the millions of Americans who have chosen in recent months to resign.

When he joined Starbucks in May, Will Westlake, 24, congratulated himself on working for a group that regularly brandishes its progressive values ​​and generally offers better working conditions than other cafes. “But when I started, I realized that this was not necessarily the case”, he testifies to Agence France-Presse (AFP). He was particularly shocked to find that people who had worked for several years were earning little more than him, and he also complains of intense work speeds.

“We sell drinks at $ 8.9, every thirty seconds, throughout the day, but the company has not caught up with the demand” by hiring more employees, he explains. In this context, “We can either resign or, since we care about the company, try to change things by forming a union”.

The pandemic has heightened the frustrations of employees, many of them believing that they have not received enough support to cope with the new health requirements.

The start of a wave?

Staff favorable to the unions were all the more motivated as Starbucks showed resistance. A few weeks after the launch of the union mobilization, the group announced several measures, such as an increase in its minimum salary or better consideration of seniority. But he also, according to the organizers of the campaign, deployed the great means to try to convince the employees to vote no, in particular sending a battalion of executives in the region to supervise the teams and try to convince the hesitant employees. Iconic former boss Howard Schultz even came to host a reunion in early November.

Starbucks has also launched a legal battle, asking first that the twenty establishments in the area vote together, then that the rejection of this first request be invalidated. In vain.

If the group is so worried about the arrival of a union, even in one cafe, “It’s good because it could trigger a wave within the company”, notes Cedric de Leon. Employees at other establishments in Buffalo as well as at a cafe in Arizona recently asked to be able to organize votes to join the SWU.