Starbucks workers at a Long Beach and Lakewood location woke up to the smell of victory Friday morning as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) tallied their votes via Zoom to confirm what they already suspected: unionization.
The two stores, one on 7th Street and Redondo, the other on Candlewood Street, are the latest to formally partner with Starbucks Workers United, a formal organization made up by partners that aids stores in organizing and connects them to the NLRB.
They are the first two locations in Southern California to formally unionize, and just the third and fourth in the state.
The barista-led labor movement in Long Beach came into fruition with a room full of baristas cheering and hugging each other to celebrate the 24-1 vote to unionize in Lakewood, and the 13-0 count in Long Beach.
There are now roughly 70 stores formally unionized out of the over 8,000 locations.
Efforts to take control of their workplace began on March 7, when the two stores filed separately in response to the anti-union sentiments being pushed out by the company, along with blatant union-busting antics. Lead organizer at the Lakewood location, Tyler Keeling, was prepared for anything when he chose to mail in his store’s claim.
“They [the union] were very honest with us and very clear like, ‘If you’re going to take this on, it is going to be a big thing so don’t underestimate the situation but also if you’re committed don’t back down,’” Keeling said. “There’s no point in backing down if you feel like it’s what’s right.”
In the two months since filing for unionization, Keeling hasbeen educating his partners about labor laws and connecting with other stores.
The barista-led movement has utilized social media to speed up their efforts to connect with one another. Many organizers, Keeling explained, create specific accounts to find each other more easily and spread useful information.
“[The union] didn’t force us to do anything,” Keeling said. “There’s this narrative that the union has been really aggressive. There’s a narrative Starbucks has sort of put out that there’s an outside party, in Howard Schultze’s words, in our CEO’s words, ‘assaulting the company’ and that’s not true at all because they give us the power to do this. They tell us the information and we act on it, we organize and we are the ones in the store leading this movement.”
The Lakewood location did in fact become a frequent place for district manager and store manager to hold what Keeling called “captive meetings” with partners one-on-one, where Keeling claimed they were given misinformation about how unionzing would affect them and possibly their benefits.
Earlier today, Keeling stood among his fellow partners, cheering and hugging his coworkers when the vote was announced. After six years with the company, and three at the Lakewood location, he cited coworkers quitting out of frustration, sicknesses due to stress and low wages.
“I really do think we deserve fair wages that compete with the current state of, the cost of living, current inflation index, those are kind of like my biggest things because I have to pay my bills,” Keeling said. “Even though we’re seeing record profits. None of that comes back to us.”
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