An escalating wave of Starbucks worker victories continued this week when baristas at a Seal Beach store voted to join Starbucks Workers United.
Their 9-3 vote marks the 32nd California location to unionize. Workers at the 12470 Seal Beach Blvd. store join more than 400 Starbucks stores nationwide that have unionized in their fight for higher wages, increased hours, consistent scheduling and a stronger voice on the job.
“Winning this election is a huge confidence booster because for so long our issues and needs have been left unmet,” said Anaiah Hufstetler, who has worked at the Seal Beach coffee shop for two years. “But now we are making people hear us.”
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The Seal Beach baristas and workers from 20 other Starbucks stores in 14 states expressed their workplace frustrations in a recent letter to the National Labor Relations Board.
“Across the country, management is cutting hours, writing inconsistent and unreliable schedules and placing more and more work on fewer and fewer partners,” the letter said. “Starbucks’ profit-driven behavior makes doing our jobs impossible.”
Employees say they can’t keep up with constant in-store promotions, dilapidated equipment and unclean stores.
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“It’s clear to us now more than ever that this one-sided relationship is no longer working,” they said.
In a statement issued Thursday, March 21, Starbucks spokesman Andrew Trull said the company is “eager to reach ratified agreements in 2024 for stores that have already voted for union representation.”
“We respect the rights of our partners to organize and bargain collectively,” he said. “We are committed to delivering on our promise to offer a bridge to a better future to all Starbucks partners.”
Trull noted last month that the company’s average hourly wage for its US workers is $17.50, and when total compensation and benefits are included that equates to $27 an hour.
Damian Velazquez, a shift supervisor at the Seal Beach store, said the move toward collective bargaining has been long in coming.
“We’ve worked for so long to join this effort,” he said. “We deserve consistent work hours and a place that values baristas’ input on better working conditions.”
Velazquez said when suggestions or concerns are brought to management little or no action is taken.
And for many, work schedules have been whittled.
“They’ve been able to cut our hours at their own discretion, causing many partners to jeopardize their qualifications to access Starbucks benefits, or worse, lose necessary wages to survive,” Velazquez said.
Workers at another Starbucks in Los Angeles voted last month to unionize, and additional stores in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Anaheim and Huntington Beach have also joined Starbucks Workers United.
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Baristas allege the coffee chain has engaged in illegal union-busting tactics and has refused to negotiate.
In more than 50 separate decisions, federal administrative law judges have found that Starbucks committed hundreds of violations of federal labor law, the union said. That includes unlawful firings, refusing to bargain and unlawfully providing non-union workers higher wages and better benefits than workers who voted to form a union.
In February, unionized Starbucks baristas reached an agreement with the company to begin discussions on a framework aimed at achieving ratified bargaining agreements, resolving certain litigation and addressing other issues.
“Starbucks union workers remain determined in their demand for fair pay and hours, safe working conditions, and a commitment to quality and culture that reflects the Starbucks brand they built,” the union said.
