Employees at this Bellingham Starbucks are petitioning for a union election
A Bellingham Starbucks cafe is joining what appears to be a nationwide movement across the company to hold union elections.
In a post on Twitter, employees of the Starbucks on Iowa at King street announced that they have petitioned for a union election. An election has not taken place yet, said Alex Riccio, an organizer for Workers United, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union.
Twenty Starbucks stores have now unionized and around 220 Starbucks stores have sought elections, according to a Thursday, April 14, NPR story.
Riccio said 11 Starbucks locations in Washington state have submitted petitions for elections, including a Seattle location that voted to form a union. That Seattle location is now in the process of negotiating its first contract.
“The movement is growing nationwide and every day more workers are choosing to form unions to improve their workplaces,” Riccio said in an email.
In its letter posted on Twitter signed by 11 employees, they noted a desire to improve overall work conditions at the drive-through coffee spot. The employees said the decision to petition for an election was made after several attempts to work with Starbucks management were unsuccessful.
The employees noted the drive-through was left without a manager for several months, making it very difficult to function as a drive-through operation. Last fall the drive-through temporarily closed because of staffing shortages.
“Handling the store with the constant changes that covid brought each day was too much for baristas and shift supervisors to manage alone,” the letter stated.
The Bellingham Herald has reached out to Starbucks officials as well as to the Bellingham employees for comment.
