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starbucks workers united
New Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol Has a History of Union-Busting
Niccol's tenure as Chipotle CEO was marred by settlements over unfair labor practices and child labor law violations.
Aug 13, 2024
Labor advocates responded to Tuesday's announcement that global coffee giant Starbucks hired Brian Niccol as its new chief executive officer by highlighting his history of union-busting during his previous job as CEO of the fast-food chain Chipotle.
Starbucks' move to replace former CEO Laxman Narasimhan with Niccol comes as the company's share price has fallen amid an ongoing unionization wave by its workers and boycotts over its perceived support for Israel, which is on trial for genocide at the World Court over its war on Gaza.
"We are thrilled to welcome Brian to Starbucks. His phenomenal career speaks for itself," Starbucks board chair Mellody Hobson said in a statement announcing his hiring. "Like all of us at Starbucks, he understands that a remarkable customer experience is rooted in an exceptional partner experience."
Niccol—who will be Starbucks' fourth CEO in just two years—said he is "energized by the tremendous potential to drive growth and further enhance the Starbucks experience for our customers and partners, while staying true to our mission and values."
Starbucks refers to its workers as "partners."
However, More Perfect Union noted that, under Niccol's leadership, Chipotle closed a store in Augusta, Maine in 2022 after employees there tried to make it the company's first unionized location. The workers filed a complaint at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which ruled that the closure was an illegal act of union-busting.
Last year, Chipotle agreed to pay former workers at the Augusta store $240,000 as part of a settlement over the illegal closure. The company also settled another unfair labor practices charge after the NLRB sided with workers at a Lawrence, Kansas Chipotle who accused management of thwarting their unionization drive.
While the Augusta workers failed to unionize their store, employees of another Chipotle—this one in Lansing, Michigan—overcame what More Perfect Union called "egregious union-busting" and voted to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 243.
During Niccol's tenure, Chipotle also paid to settle child labor law violations in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C.
According to the Financial Times, Starbucks' decision to oust Narasimhan came after pressure from activist investor Elliott Management and former company CEO Howard Schultz, a notorious union-buster.
Niccol will take over as Starbucks CEO on September 9. Until then, chief financial officer Rachel Ruggeri will serve as interim CEO.
According to the Starbucks Workers United union, employees at more than 470 Starbucks locations across the United States have voted to unionize since baristas at a store on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, New York became the first to do so in late 2021.
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The Starbucks Ruling Proves That Workers Can Only Rely on Their Own Power
You can shut the companies down because you do the work; all the rest of labor’s power flows from that.
Jun 15, 2024
In February, Starbucks finally agreed to sit down at the bargaining table with their workers’ union. They agreed to this not out of the goodness of their shriveled heart, but after being dragged by their hair, kicking and screaming and union busting the whole time. They agreed to bargain after the union spent two years organizing hundreds of stores, and filed hundreds of unfair labor practice charges against the company, and did strikes all over the country, and got Bernie Sanders to berate Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in front of a congressional subcommittee.
Starbucks did their absolute utmost to illegally fire and intimidate and retaliate against workers who were organizing, and then to stubbornly refuse to bargain in good faith with those who did, and to lie wildly about all of it the whole time. Thousands of Starbucks workers and thousands of their allies across the country had to fight and claw for months and years to get this $90 billion company just to sit down and begin negotiating, as they are required to by law.
That was all just to get to the bargaining table. I always chuckle now when I read the periodic joint statements released by Starbucks and the union, Workers United, because they all sound like the Hatfields and McCoys being forced at gunpoint to shuffle uncomfortably in front of the camera and say, “We continue to make good progress in this mutually agreed upon process.” The fact is that if Starbucks could purchase a magic wand for $50 million that would cause all of their company’s union members to catch long Covid and resign and allow the union to die, they surely would. They were brought to this point by the power of organized labor, and nothing less.
It only took a few years of the NLRB actually enforcing existing labor law for much of corporate America to decide that they are willing to throw the entire post-New Deal labor peace framework in the trash in order to stop it.
Even while Starbucks has been engaged in this, ahem, good faith bargaining, their case seeking to restrict the power of the National Labor Relations Board has been winding its way through the courts. On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled in Starbucks’ favor, in a case where the company complained that the NLRB’s demand that they reinstate seven workers in Memphis who were illegally fired for organizing was made according to an unduly burdensome standard. The ruling will restrict the ability of the NLRB, which, under Jennifer Abruzzo’s leadership during the Biden administration, has been an aggressive advocate of workers’ rights, to hold companies responsible for their retaliations against workers, which are so common and numerous that 99% of them never make the news.
I am not here to play legal analyst, except to point out (as many actual legal scholars will as well) that rulings like this are really political judgments on what the proper balance of power between workers and businesses are, not some sort of unbiased judgment flowing from a perusal of hallowed heavenly law. The Supreme Court may soon make things even worse for the NLRB thanks to more corporate-funded lawsuits attacking the agency’s power, which I wrote a bit about here. It only took a few years of the NLRB actually enforcing existing labor law for much of corporate America to decide that they are willing to throw the entire post-New Deal labor peace framework in the trash in order to stop it. The Starbucks case this week was only an appetizer. Gird yourself for worse.
Companies are tigers in cages. You can lock them in there and pet them and feed them for years, but let them out for one minute and they will eat you. That’s it.
Mostly, Thursday’s ruling, and everything that led up to it, is a fantastic illustration of a point that is very basic but that it is important to name and hold up and repeat at regular intervals, because it is always in danger of being obscured: Power is the only thing that gets workers under capitalism anything. Here we sit with an encyclopedia’s worth of labor law and 150 years of industrial relations history around us, and none of it means a damn thing. Companies would throw it all in the fire at the earliest opportunity, were such a thing to become politically possible. If you are a working person and you want fair wages and decent working conditions and a fair share of what your company produces and protections from exploitative treatment, the only way to get those things is to come together with your coworkers and exercise your collective power to withhold your labor. You can shut the companies down because you do the work. That is your power. All the rest of labor’s power flows from that. All the wage increases and workplace safety regulations and favorable NLRB rulings and pro-union politicians who will come sit on stage at the rallies exist only due to organizing and being willing to strike. Everything else can go away, but those things can’t. The ability to exercise that power resides exclusively in the hands of the workers. That is the seed from which the entirety of organized labor has grown.
This is one reason why the Starbucks Workers United are so admirable. Starting with nothing, they organized one store, and then another, and then dozens, and then hundreds, and they made a lot of noise in the media, and they pulled in their political allies, and they struck, and they built up such a wall of pressure that the company was finally forced to listen to them. Everything they have was won with labor power. Starbucks, the famously progressive company, tried to squash them at every turn, but wasn’t able to. But if conditions change, or if the union’s will to power flags, the company would jump right back up and try to squash them again. There is no such thing as permanent labor peace. Companies are tigers in cages. You can lock them in there and pet them and feed them for years, but let them out for one minute and they will eat you. That’s it.
It may sound weird to say, but I find the plainness of this dynamic comforting. There is no need for anxiety. All of the questions are answered up front. Will my company treat me fairly? No. Will the boss do the right thing and look out for us? No. Now that we have a union, can we take it easy? No. Now that we have a contract, can we assume the company will follow it? No. Won’t the company follow the laws that protect workers? No. Won’t the regulators and the courts enforce the laws that protect workers? No. Won’t the elected officials stand up on our behalf? No. Your employer will hold you down and drown you in a pool of the lowest possible wages unless you use your collective power to prevent that from happening. Better take care of yourselves, together.
There will be times and places when things will go workers’ way, and that’s nice. There will sometimes be nice bosses and supportive politicians and Jennifer Abruzzos at the NLRB, and that’s something to be enjoyed. But none of that, I promise you, lasts forever under capitalism. The pendulum will swing. Right-wing courts will wipe away your legal protections and greedy investors will install a cruel boss and racist voters will boot the friendly Congressman. No need to cry when it happens. We know it will happen. And we know, most importantly, that we still hold in our hands the power of our own labor. The one thing they can’t take away. We do the work. If they won’t do the right thing, we won’t work. And upon that foundation, we can build the whole thing over again.
Hamilton Nolan is the author of the book The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor. This piece is reprinted from his publication How Things Work.
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'A Massive Step': Starbucks Agrees to New Contract Talks With Union Workers
One labor expert and professor said it is "hard to overstate how big a deal this is."
Feb 27, 2024
U.S. labor advocates on Tuesday hailed an agreement between the Starbucks Workers United union and coffee giant to restart talks aimed at reaching a collective bargaining agreement after a two-and-a-half year impasse.
"Starbucks and Workers United have a shared commitment to establishing a positive relationship in the interests of Starbucks partners," the company and union said in a joint statement. "During mediation discussions last week for the ongoing brand and [intellectual property] litigation, it became clear that there was a constructive path forward on the broader issue of the future of organizing and collective bargaining at Starbucks."
The statement added that the two parties "have agreed to begin discussions on a foundational framework designed to achieve both collective bargaining agreements for represented stores and partners, and the resolution of litigation between the union and the company. This includes resolving litigation related to both the partner benefits announced in May 2022 and the use of the Starbucks brand."
Reacting to the news, More Perfect Unionsaid on social media: "Starbucks has been refusing to bargain with over 300 unionized stores. Now they seem to finally be conceding to the union. This is a massive step forward."
Eric Blanc, a labor expert and professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said it is "hard to overstate how big a deal this is."
"Relentless organizing by Starbucks Workers United has forced Starbucks to stop illegally denying benefits to union members and to start (it appears) bargaining a first contract in good faith," he added.
In what Starbucks called a "sign of good faith," the company agreed to offer approximately 10,000 employees in unionized stores higher wages and benefits it extended to nonunionized workers nearly two years ago, including the ability for customers to add tips to credit card payments.
Starbucks executive vice president and chief partner officer Sara Kelly said: "We have reached an important milestone. We have agreed with Workers United that we will begin discussions on a foundational framework designed to achieve collective bargaining agreements, including a fair process for organizing, and the resolution of some outstanding litigation."
"There is a lot of work ahead, but this is an important, positive step," Kelly added. "It is a clear demonstration of our intent to build a constructive relationship with Workers United in the interests of our partners. I want to acknowledge and appreciate the union's willingness to do the same."
While workers at nearly 400 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize, none have worked out contracts with the company.
Last week, baristas at 21 Starbucks stores in 14 states launched the largest single-day unionization drive in company history.
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