University Starbucks employees seek unionization, claim 'erosion' of company culture

Starbucks employees at 24th and Nueces streets, nearby the University of Texas at Austin, have formed a union.

According to a letter posted to social media on Friday by Starbucks Workers United, the location is unique in that most of its workers and patrons are students at the university.

The letter said that the past two and a half years have caused “an erosion” of company culture, trust and “pressure to do more with less.” The store said despite Starbucks’ historical view that unions are unnecessary in the company due to the value it has for its Partners, it hopes to recreate a healthy work environment.

A Starbucks spokesperson responded with a list of its current benefits and a statement, according to KVUE:

• Starbucks Benefits Overview
• Bean Stock
• Starbucks College Achievement Plan
• Lyra Mental Health Benefits
• Starbucks announces expanded benefits for trans people
• $1B investment in wage--starting salary $17/hr (October 2021)

"We are listening and learning from the partners in these stores as we always do across the country. From the beginning, we’ve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed. Starbucks success—past, present, and future—is built on how we partner together, always with Our Mission and Values at our core. As Rossann Williams, evp and president, North America, recently shared with our partners “the vote outcomes will not change our shared purpose or how we will show up for each other. … We will keep listening, we will keep connecting and we will keep being in service of one another because that’s what we’ve always done and what it means to be partner."