Subject: LRI INK: Will These Union Organizing ‘Firsts’ Follow the Starbucks Pattern?

July 7, 2022

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Will These Union Organizing ‘Firsts’ Follow the Starbucks Pattern?

by Kimberly Ricci

We recently shared the news of organizing “firsts” for companies that previously were unscathed by union activity. In 2022, a new toolbox is helping unions get a foot into a company’s door. As we have seen with Starbucks, “firsts” can become trickles that have the potential to become a deluge, and there is the question of whether Apple – which recently saw workers (at a Baltimore location) vote in favor of the first unionized retail store – could see a flood of workers following suit at other stores. 

 

For its part, Apple announced that they’re ready to bargain with the Baltimore workers (as represented by the Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) on the issue of pay and increased benefits. Workers United and the CWA have launched a coordinated effort to organize more stores out of the total 270 U.S. Apple retail locations. The coming months should tell us a lot about whether the Starbucks pattern will further spread across unrelated industries, as it has already begun to do elsewhere. 

 

Here are some recent organizing updates of interest:

  • At the first Trader Joe’s location to organize (as Trader Joe’s United), workers will vote on union representation on July 27 in Hadley, Massachusetts. 

  • The first Chipotle Mexican Grill workers to organize (as Chipotle United) filed for their union election for an Augusta, Maine location. 

  • Several Union Kitchen locations (including 50+ workers) in the Washington, D.C. area saw workers vote to join the United Food and Commercial Workers.

  • When one thinks about the United Auto Workers, workers in academia don’t usually spring to mind. Yet in recent years, the UAW focused on capturing university workers (including graduate student assistants) in significant numbers. There’s no monopoly there, however, because at least 500 Santa Clara faculty members in California just voted to join the SEIU.

  • And in a move that’s semi-stunning (for the sheer numbers involved), the Teamsters moved in on cannabis facilities in a targeted way over the past year. Since spring 2021, almost 500 workers at more than a dozen facilities (dispensaries and distributors) voted for Teamsters representation. The $25 billion business also attracted the United Food and Commercial Workers, for which a Curaleaf dispensary (in Arizona) also recently voted to unionize.

Meanwhile, the Starbucks saga keeps simmering. Over the past few weeks, two dozen more cafes voted to unionize, bringing the total to 171 stores across the U.S. that have voted for outside representation. That amounts to almost 2% of the total Starbucks locations across the country, and while that might not seem like too many (compared to 8,000+ existing Starbucks locations in the U.S.), all cafes that voted to unionize did so over the past year. Already, multiple unionized Starbucks cafes saw strikes begin, which might point toward trouble ahead at the bargaining table.

 

And although Starbucks, given its high profile, might be viewed as the template for current organizing trends, they weren’t truly the first coffeehouses to see union activity. The trend actually began about a year prior, in 2020, at two separate independently owned Milwaukee coffeehouses. NPR published a report that details how these two locations saw very different results (with only one set of workers voting for union representation), yet both workplaces turned upside down in the process.

 

If you are interested in what we’ve recently been doing to help guard against union activity, give us a call (800-888-9115).

Links

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Union Bailout

 

The National Labor Relations Board is Engaging in Rulemaking, Again

https://lri.link/3NFyoMu

 

Biden’s Union Pension Bailout: What It Means, And Will It Work?

https://lri.link/3IjQmD2

 

Employers Must Pay For Refusing To Bargain, NLRB Lawyers Say

https://lri.link/3noH7b0

 

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UAW Members Challenge Ray Curry For Union Presidency

https://lri.link/3NBaqSp

 

NEA Rhode Island President Purtill To Retire In December 

https://lri.link/3AswjjZ

 

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Union Corruption

 

Former Union Officer Pleads Guilty To Embezzlement Scheme That Generated More Than $500,000

https://lri.link/3ny2FSS

 

Ex-New Bedford Cop Sentenced To 3 Months In Prison For Embezzling Union Money

https://lri.link/3Alaxid

 

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Healthcare

 

These Grocery Pharmacists Are Rallying For Fair Wages And Staff Increases

https://lri.link/3nzOU5V

 

Mass. Planned Parenthood Employees Vote Overwhelmingly To Unionize

https://lri.link/3amGMCQ

 

12 Nursing Homes In Western New York Plan For 1-Day Strike

https://lri.link/3AozOI8

 

LA City Council Gives Final Approval Of $25 Hour Wage Increase For All Private Hospital Workers

https://lri.link/3P4qRYv

 

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Hospitality

 

Last-Minute Deal Averts 6,000 Worker Casino Strike In Atlantic City

https://lri.link/3nzPPTV

 

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Manufacturing

 

GM Avoids UAW Strike At Four Michigan Plants

https://lri.link/3nChbc5

 

Auto Workers Hold Lots of Cards Even If US Heads for Recession

https://lri.link/3nGK6f2

 

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Minimum Rising

 

Workers In More Than 20 States, Cities, And Counties Got A Wage Boost On July 1

https://lri.link/3yE9GYq

 

About Labor Relations INK

Labor Relations INK is published weekly and is edited by Labor Relations Institute, Inc. Feel free to pass this newsletter on to anyone you think might enjoy it. New subscribers can sign up by visiting here.


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Contributing editors for this issue: Phillip Wilson, Greg Kittinger, and Kimberly Ricci 


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About Labor Relations Institute

LRI exists to help our clients thrive and become extraordinary workplaces. We improve the lives of working people by strengthening relationships with their leaders and each other. For over 41 years LRI has led the labor and employee relations industry, driven by our core values and our proven process, the LRI Way.

 

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