Workers at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery on Michigan Avenue — the largest Starbucks in the world — rejected union membership in a vote held Friday and Saturday by the National Labor Relations Board.
Employees at the 35,000-square-foot roastery rejected the union in a 119-90 vote, according to the labor board. Staff at the flagship roastery filed for a union election last month with Starbucks Workers United, the Service Employees International Union affiliate representing Starbucks workers.
The Michigan Avenue roastery, a five-story tourist draw at 646 N. Michigan Ave., opened in a former Crate & Barrel store in 2019. The caffeine emporium offers elaborate coffee-based drinks and cocktails as well as pastries baked in house. It was the coffee giant’s sixth roastery in the world when it opened four years ago.
Two other U.S. roasteries, located in Starbucks’ Seattle hometown and in New York, unionized last spring.
In a news release, Starbucks Workers United alleged the company engaged in illegal union-busting at the Chicago roastery, which Starbucks denies.
“We are pleased that our Chicago Roastery partners share our belief that we are accomplishing more to improve the partner experience working directly together than would be accomplished through the divisive tactics of the union,” said Starbucks spokesperson Andrew Trull.
In a statement, Starbucks Workers United said it had filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB alleging the company had held mandatory captive audience and one-on-one meetings in the run-up to the election and that it had engaged in illegal surveillance of union activities.
“Starbucks did everything possible to stop workers from having a free and fair election,” the union said.
Starbucks said it believes the union’s allegations “are meritless and that actions taken were both lawful and in alignment with the (National Labor Relations Act).” The company said any conversations that involved discussion of union organizing were optional for roastery employees.
“Workers United should respect the right for all partners to share their experiences and beliefs related to union representation and should recognize the outcome of this properly conducted election,” Trull said.
The loss at the Chicago roastery, which would have added about 240 baristas, mixologists, retail staff and customer service workers to the union’s ranks, is “symbolically challenging” for the Starbucks union at a vulnerable point in its campaign, said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Though the Starbucks campaign has logged a high win rate — as of early August, the union had won more than 80% of elections held — those wins have slowed down, Bronfenbrenner said. The approximately 350 unionized Starbucks stores represent only a small fraction of the company’s 9,300 company-owned stores in the U.S.
Though the Starbucks union campaign won its first election in late 2021, no cafe has yet bargained a first contract. Regional officials for the labor board have issued complaints alleging the company has failed to bargain in good faith with the union at numerous cafes around the country, which Starbucks denies. The company says it is the union that has failed to bargain in good faith with the company.
Workers United has also faced decertification petitions at 17 unionized cafes, Starbucks said, including at its roastery in New York.
Workers can file decertification petitions, which seek to force a second union election, one year after unionization if they do not yet have a contract. The petition at the New York roastery was dismissed because of complaints issued against Starbucks alleging labor law violations there, according to labor board filings. The worker who filed the petition has since requested review of that decision.
“The Starbucks campaign inspired an organizing wave across the country, but they are taking on a huge employer store by store by store,” Bronfenbrenner said.
The store-by-store approach means most bargaining units organized by the Starbucks campaign are much smaller than the Chicago roastery, with many involving votes of just 15 or 20 baristas. The size of the roastery makes it more difficult to organize than a typical neighborhood cafe, Bronfenbrenner said.
Chiquita Robinson, a baker at the roastery, said she voted against the union because she felt as if she could address any problems she had at work with management herself. When she first started working at the roastery, she said, she was being underpaid and her manager resolved the situation, getting her a raise.
“You have to speak up to speak out,” said Robinson, who said she had worked at the roastery since it opened four years ago. “Closed mouths don’t get fed.”
Robinson, who said she felt the union campaign had “divided” the roastery, also noted that Starbucks had continued to pay roastery staff when stores were closed early in the pandemic.
“We don’t need a union,” she said. “They take good care of us.”
Kyra Supnet, a mixologist at the roastery who voted for the union, said the company had engaged in a campaign to discourage yes votes, including by holding meetings in which managers “pulled out tears” and by giving out snacks stickered with messages encouraging no votes.
“Every Gatorade bottle was stickered,” said Supnet, a member of the staff’s organizing committee who said she has worked at the roastery for a little over a year.
Supnet said she believes the company’s messaging eroded support for the union push. Reflecting on the union’s campaign, she noted the size and design of the roastery made it difficult to organize.
“We’re all separated by floors,” she said. “It’s really hard to gauge who knows who and who can talk to who.”
Nationally, Starbucks has pushed back hard against the union drive, which launched in Buffalo, New York, in 2021. The company has been found in violation of a range of labor laws by administrative law judges over the course of the campaign, including in Chicago, where a judge ruled the company had threatened workers at two cafes and illegally fired a Hyde Park barista who led the union push at his neighborhood store.
Starbucks has appealed that ruling and generally denies allegations and findings of lawbreaking.
