Starbucks employees at a Buffalo, NY store voted to unionize. The vote passed in a 19-8 margin. It’s a first for the coffee chain, but a sign of things to come…
Two other stores in the area also conducted their own votes. One rejected the union and the other’s vote was “inconclusive” as of this writing. In total, the employees at the three stores represent just 100 of Starbucks’ 235,000 employees.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic has given many laborers pause — and Starbucks is taking it very seriously.
In the company’s most recent quarterly report, the word ‘union‘ is used four times. In one section, Starbucks observes that America’s labor situation is dire for employers, conceding that “our wages and benefits programs may be insufficient to attract and retain the best talent.”
Starbucks goes on to say that many employees are not represented by unions, but “if a significant portion of our employees were to become unionized, our labor costs would increase and our business could be negatively affected by other requirements and expectations that could increase our costs, change our employee culture, decrease our flexibility and disrupt our business.”
The company also warns that speaking out against union drives might negatively affect people’s perceptions of the chain, but that didn’t stop company execs from descending on Buffalo to campaign against the union effort. ❌ Union supporters claim that employees have been called into “mandatory meetings … with top executives” as a form of intimidation. 🚨
Starbucks’ woes are increasingly the woes of other large corporations. CNN reported first about efforts to unionize workers at Starbucks, Dollar General, and Amazon back in October. Since then, we’ve covered Amazon’s anticipated fight with a union drive in Alabama after a regulator invalidated the results of the first drive. 🥊 We cited changing attitudes about work, ongoing labor shortages, and a recent trend of labor-driven campaigns concerning large corporations.
It’s easy to see why employers would be concerned: employees have been benefactors of a renewed labor movement throughout the U.S. For example, 10,000 employees at John Deere struck more favorable benefits after a union drive this year. Members of the union can expect a 10% increase in wages this year (and a 20% cumulative increase over the next six years.)
If unionization efforts are successful, they could create a domino effect for employers. That could be very good for employees, bad for companies, and very bad for their stock prices. However, it’s possible that Wall Street pressures have given Main Street few other options than to demand more.