Workers United and Starbucks Agree on Path Forward

Workers United and Starbucks this week announced this week that they have agreed to begin discussions on a foundational framework to achieve collective bargaining agreements for represented stores and partners, the resolution of litigation between the union and the company, including brand litigation, and a fair process for workers to organize. As part of the agreement, the company has also agreed to implement credit-card tipping and provide back pay for the raises and benefits it denied workers at unionized locations while offering them to workers at its other 9,700 corporate-owned US stores.

The announcement marks a momentous breakthrough in the ongoing Starbucks organizing campaign. Since the initial unionization vote at a Buffalo Starbucks store in December 2021, over 380 additional stores have chosen to join the union. Despite this, Starbucks had been steadfast in its refusal to engage in negotiations. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said as recently as 2022 that the company would "never engage with the union." And just last month, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) lodged a complaint against Starbucks, accusing the company of "failing and refusing to bargain collectively with the union" across nearly 400 stores.

Read more about the game-changing agreement in Jacobin, the American Prospect, the New York Times, and Bloomberg.