The Battle for the Starbucks Union
By 
Dave Jamieson is right on–the victory for the Starbucks union in Buffalo is huge, but that’s nothing compared to the fight for the first contract.
Starbucks workers in Buffalo let loose shouts of joy on Thursday after winning a hard-fought election to form the first union in a corporate-owned Starbucks store in the United States.
But Jaz Brisack, a barista at the unionized location and public supporter of the union, had no illusions that the battle was finished.
“Our fight isn’t over until we get a contract,” the 24-year-old declared in a press conference after the win.
The election victory is just the first round in a potentially long struggle between the nascent union, Starbucks Workers United, and the biggest coffee chain in the world. Workers at Buffalo’s Elmwood Avenue store have earned their seat at the table with the company, but they won’t reap all the benefits of unionization until they secure a first collective bargaining agreement.
Meanwhile, Starbucks workers at another Buffalo-area store rejected the union, and the results of the election at a third store were inconclusive after an initial count, but the tally was leaning toward another win for the union.
Finalizing a first contract can be notoriously difficult, in large part because companies often drag out negotiations and hope union support will weaken over time. Starbucks has roughly 9,000 corporate-owned stores in the U.S., with 220,000 workers in them. Now that the union has a toehold, there is little incentive for the company to offer the Buffalo workers an attractive deal that could encourage other shops to unionize.
Most employers in Starbucks’ position would rather send a message to employees that a union gains nothing and organizing is futile; they want to reach a contract with only weak gains for the workers or, ideally, no contract at all. The most aggressive companies react to unionization at a single store or two by simply shutting those locations down and prompting a legal fight over the closures.
We often forget that winning the union election is the easy part. And it is by no means easy, not with the NLRB so pro-employer. Starbucks will do all it can to not recognize this union. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens here.