Workers at Starbucks locations in Portland, Beaverton and Eugene filed for union elections this week, part of a nationwide push for worker representation at the coffee chain.
One store in Portland, two in Beaverton and three in Eugene announced union drives on Jan. 31. They followed the first Oregon store to seek a union, located at 29th and Willamette in Eugene, which announced its campaign Jan. 6.
As of Feb. 1, 55 Starbucks stores nationwide have launched union efforts with Workers United, an affiliate of Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The announcements came the same day the first two union Starbucks shops in the country, located in Buffalo, New York, began bargaining with the company.
Quentin Kanta, a barista at a Starbucks on Walker Road in Beaverton and a lead organizer of that store’s union campaign, told the Labor Press the organizing effort came together in under a month. There were a handful of core supporters and a couple of opponents, but most of the roughly 27 employees were in the middle.
The organizing committee at the Walker Road store coordinated so that each on-the-fence employee would be approached by two proponents to discuss the campaign. The strategy resulted in 19 card signatures in a matter of weeks.
“We weren’t waiting to hear back from people. We were making the ask, having the second person make the ask and always following up with them,” Kanta said. “I think that’s how it came together so quickly.”
Kanta, who has worked at Starbucks in multiple locations for nearly two years, said union representation would allow workers to have a voice in developing COVID-19 protocols like limiting seating, in addition to changes such as allowing customers to tip via credit card.
The company calls its employees “partners,” Kanta added, but workers don’t see their current position as a partnership.
“If you’re going to call us partners, we need to be partners, we need to have a say in how things are operating in our store,” Kanta said.
A Starbucks spokesperson said the company will not voluntarily recognize union representation for the Oregon stores. The company prefers a process through which employees can anonymously share their choice, the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson declined to speculate on what’s driving nationwide union momentum at Starbucks locations, but said the company will respect employees’ choices and will respect the NLRB process.
As for the organizing team at the Walker Road store, the influence of the nationwide campaign is clear.
“I always wanted to do this, but didn’t really think it was possible until the Buffalo partners did it and won,” Kanta said.
