Title: Unionization Effort at Starbucks: An Alternative Perspective
Author(s) : Melissa Waite
Starbucks Workers United, the affiliate of Workers United - Service Employees International Union, has celebrated union victories in nearly 400 Starbucks locations since the first Buffalo, New York Starbucks store unionized in December 2021. This paper explores an alternative perspective to the notion SWU “has taken off nationwide and appears to have developed an almost unstoppable grassroots-driven momentum” (Logan, 2022). Among the themes this paper explores is the degree to which the SWU movement was influenced by $2.4 million of union salts paid for by SEIU (as revealed in a U.S. Department of Labor filing), the notable slowing of certification elections at Starbucks locations, the acceleration of decertification petitions at unionized Starbucks locations, the use of strikes by SWU, the role of corporate governance in the union fracas, and the politics of influence, unions, and the National Labor Relations Board. Logan, J. (2022). High-octane organizing at Starbucks. New Labor Forum, 31(3), 36-42.