The union, which represents Starbucks workers, won a five-story election in Richmond, Virginia on Tuesday, but showed no signs of slowing as it tried to set up a chain of coffee shops in the store.
The campaign, known as Starbucks Workers United, has won more than 20 union elections and lost only two since the first ballot was conducted late last year, although not all election results have been verified. None of the more than 9,000 U.S.-owned stores have been repaired previously.
The union must get a majority of votes to be a negotiating representative in the workplace. On Tuesday, the union firmly won the votes of all five stores: 17-1, 22-3, 11-2, 13-8 and 19-0.
Last week, the union lost a by-election in Springfield, Virginia, where workers voted 10-8 against the union. This vote was preceded by some unanimous numbers in favor of unification.
The campaign is one of the organization’s most closely monitored efforts in recent decades. Union membership has been declining over the years and unions are struggling to gain a foothold in the fast food economy. The success of the Starbucks campaign and the recent union success at Amazon have brought hope for a resurgence of employment, with unions with the highest approval ratings in years.
Starbucks strongly opposed the organizational campaign, with managers trying to encourage workers to vote for the union and CEO Howard Schultz called out campaign outsiders.
“We cannot ignore what is happening in the country, because it applies to companies across the country that have been attacked in many ways due to the threat of unionization. Schultz said recently.
The company also recently fired a number of outright union supporters. Starbucks says these workers violated company policies, but the union filed a complaint against the National Labor Council over retaliatory charges. Recently announced by Bloomberg. Board officials found seven outages in Memphis, Tennessee illegal.
As the union continues to win elections, the battlefield moves to the bargaining table, where workers will try to get the union’s first contract. A Starbucks spokesman predicted in an interview with HuffPost last week that “developing a contract that meets or exceeds what we already offer to our partners will be difficult for them.”
Correction: This story originally erred in the interpretation of Schultz’s statement about the new benefits in the corporate forum.
Source: Huffpost
