Normal College Hills Starbucks workers win election

By a 17-0 vote, Starbucks workers at the College Hills store in Normal voted in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election to certify Starbucks Workers United (SWU) as their agent and joined a national union drive.  SWU is part of Workers United, a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) affiliate.

Over 500 stores and 10,500 Starbucks workers have nationally union organizeed.  After a multi-million-dollar anti-union campaign, the mega coffee chain is now at the table and is negotiating a first national contract.

Ava Koets is a union advocate and helped organize her fellow barristas and bakers at the Normal location.  It was a low-key and quiet worker to worker effort, the workers using social media and electronic communications to learn about SWU and build their local network. 

Ava reported that in October workers began a quiet discussion and reached out to SWU. She said that Starbucks local workers “were not being treated well” and that the store had gone through 4-5 managers in the past year.  She felt some of these managers were misusing their power.

After reaching out to SWU, they had electronic group chats to learn about the union and answer their questions.  “I’m a question person,” she said, and came into these sessions with 24 questions, sharing the answers with other workers.

Ava noted little previous knowledge of unions. Her mother is a City of Bloomington fire inspector, a member of Laborers Local 362.  Learning about the national campaign and its effectiveness spurred the Normal workers to participate.  Within nine days they had the required cards signed and voted in the NLRB election on December 11.

The Normal store workers were so “excited, so happy,” when the election was won unanimously.  “Everyone was wearing their union pins,” she reported.  Nationally, SWU held strikes at multiple locations, weeklong in larger cities, Christmas Eve in smaller locations like Normal. The local walk-out shut down the store for the day.

The original Starbucks organizing effort began in August 2021 at the Buffalo, New York store.  When they won an NLRB certification election, workers called from across the country, launching a nationwide effort, using social media to build a grass-roots campaign.  Between December 2021 and May 2022 almost two NLRB organizing petitions were filed daily by Starbucks workers.

Starbucks retaliated with a heavy hand, firing union activists and curtailing others’ hours.  Hiring Chicago’s Littler Mendelson “employment law” firm, Starbucks spent $240 million on its anti-union campaign, racking up 2,482 alleged labor law violations, resulting in 133 NLRB formal complaints against the firm. Through all of this, SWU reinforced and kept their spirits up through their national internet connections and local mutual support.  Workers United and the SEIU funded the legal fees.

On February 27, 2024, the coffee company reversed course, having lost customers, disgruntled managers resigning and its Wall Street shares falling because of the anti-union effort. Serious negotiations then began. Currently wages are in negotiations, along with hours and staffing issues.

Because SWU is grassroots, electronic dependent campaign, each store has a designated person to listen in on national negotiations and provide feedback.  Rather than relying on union organizers and staff, the effort is worker led and stores across the country, some with less than 25 employees, sustain themselves through their national web.

Having a Democratic President appointed NLRB has aided workers in the past four years, with workers’ rights violation taken seriously. In early January the NLRB said that Google had to negotiate with sub-contracted workers producing for the internet giant.

“We had it so easy,” Ava said, reflecting on those first efforts that were spurred from Buffalo.  “Because of the people before us we already had 500 stores.”

A voice at work and local democracy is critical to an effective union.  Ava’s voice grew stronger through organizing.

Making sure her voice is heard, along with her co-workers, is critical to Ava.  “Just because I’m young doesn’t mean I’m incapable.  Being a woman, I might not be treated the same.  This experience has validated that I do have a voice.  When I use my voice, someone listened.  People value my voice.”