Employees at Seattle Starbucks outline plan to unionize in letter to CEO
Dec 21, 2021, 11:14 AM
Starbucks Seattle Headquarters (MyNorthwest photo)
(MyNorthwest photo)
A Buffalo, New York, Starbucks store became the first in the nation to unionize, and a Seattle location could soon follow.
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Four employees at the Starbucks located on Broadway and Denny in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood sent a letter to the company’s CEO Kevin Johnson on Monday, detailing their intention to file for a union election.
In the letter, the workers detail how the move reflects their “commitment to growing the company and the quality of our work.”
“We see unionizing as a fundamental and necessary way to participate in Starbucks and its future as partners,” the letter reads. “Starbucks’ mission — to nurture and inspire the human spirit one cup, one neighborhood at a time — can only be achieved if partners have an organized voice to advocate for what those moments look like.”
It goes on to ask Johnson to sign a “Fair Election Principles” agreement, and to “respect our and future partners’ rights to organize without fear of retribution.”
A message from our Seattle partners who filed for a union election today: “We stand with partners around the country who are organizing to make Starbucks a better company. Starbucks started here in Seattle 50 years ago and we intend to make the next 50 even greater with a union” pic.twitter.com/knQP6fIXO9
— SBWorkersUnited (@SBWorkersUnited) December 21, 2021
Employees at the Buffalo Starbucks are currently the only ones with a union across 9,000 locations, after taking a vote in early December. While the company has yet to comment on the efforts of its Seattle workers, it did indicate that it intends to “bargain in good faith” with the Buffalo union.
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That said, supporters alleged that the company had waged an “anti-union campaign” at three other Buffalo-area stores that had filed for union elections, claiming that employees were being coerced to vote against the effort. The company has since denied those allegations.
