Marquette Starbucks Workers Win Union Election

Starbucks. (Pixabay License).

Workers at a Starbucks on the Marquette University campus have successfully organized a union.

A majority of employees at the Starbucks cafe at 1610 W. Wisconsin Ave. voted Thursday in favor of union representation during an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Once the ballots were tallied, 12 voted in favor and 4 against forming the union.

Pending the NLRB’s certification of the results, Starbucks is prepared to begin negotiating a contract with the union, Andrew Trull, a spokesperson for Starbucks, told Urban Milwaukee in a statement. For now, the corporation will wait for workers to pick a bargaining representative and make a formal demand to begin negotiations, he said.

The workers at the Marquette location organized with Starbucks Workers United, which was formed in 2021 and is affiliated with Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The national union drive has successfully organized more than 150 stores representing thousands of workers. The Marquette location is the seventh in Wisconsin to win a union election. In 2022, the Starbucks at 8880 S. Howell Ave. in Oak Creek became the first in the state to win an election.

“Winning this election means that everything we fought for wasn’t for nothing,” Xylia Trask, an employee at the coffee house said in a statement released by the union. “There’s still hope for our store and our city. Now, a future exists not only at our store, but nationwide for Starbucks workers to have a dignified and safe workplace.”

The workers at the Marquette Starbucks location will negotiate a contract that covers only their store. Starbucks Workers United has been organizing shop by shop, with separate union elections and contracts for each. This strategy differs from the approach taken by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) when it organized Colectivo Coffee‘s 20 cafes under a single bargaining unit and contract.

When the campaign at the Marquette cafe went public, a letter was sent to Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan detailing some of the issues driving workers to organize. Employees described a “near-constant decline” in morale and dysfunction created by frequent manager turnover and poor maintenance. The unionization effort was aimed at obtaining “security, cleanliness, fair compensation, and respect” for the workers.

Since the nationwide campaign launched, Starbucks has, by some accounts, played hardball with the union. The coffee behemoth has been hit with dozens of complaints for unfair labor practices, and Starbucks Workers United maintains its demand that the corporation “end illegal union-busting tactics and bargain in good faith with workers who voted to form a union.”

The company is making “an earnest attempt to propose a path forward that would allow us to resume productive contract negotiations for our U.S. partners who have chosen to elect union representation,” Trull said, adding that Starbucks wishes to reach deals on contracts for union-represented stores by next year.