Starbucks Workers United announced that workers at three more Starbucks stores have filed for union elections in Eugene. Workers at 7th and Washington, 65 Oakway Center, and Franklin & Villard , join the workers at 29th & Willamette who filed on January 6. Across the country, workers at 13 other shops filed for union elections today.
In letters sent to Starbucks President and CEO Kevin Johnson, workers at all the unionizing locations in Eugene, who are called “partners” by corporate, note how they seek to create a true partnership.
“We Starbucks employees are referred to as ‘partners’ in title, but true partnership entails equitability, shared power, accountability, and mutual respect,” reads the letter from the Franklin & Villard workers.
Workers at the 7th and Washington Store call out Starbucks for not living up to “connecting with transparency, dignity, and respect,” that the company prides itself in. With corporate sending down managers and holding surprise meetings with employees. They also say in their letter that the store faces “unique challenges serving struggling communities that our provided training and standardized solutions do not accommodate.”
In the letter from workers at the Franklin & Villard Starbucks Store, they say that Starbucks should be doing more in protecting their safety.
Workers at 54 Starbucks stores in 19 states have now filed for a union election. Two out of three of the shops that have held union elections voted in favor of the union. The bargaining unit at the Elmwood Village shop in Buffalo, which was the first store to win a union election, began bargaining for a new contract Monday.
Earlier this month, workers at the 29th & Willamette shop became the first store to file for a union election in Oregon. Today their are now seven stores in Oregon seeking a union election, with two stores in Beaverton and one store in Portland filing in addition to the workers at the three Starbucks shops in Eugene that filed today.