A Starbucks employee boards a Starbucks union bus after Starbucks employees stood on the picket line with striking SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America (WGA) members in solidarity outside Netflix studios on July 28, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
Starbucks and Workers United, which represents about 500 of the company’s cafes, said in a joint statement Friday that they made “significant progress” in contract talks this week.
On Wednesday and Thursday in Atlanta, the two sides discussed the grievance process, details related to union representation for Starbucks baristas and other topics, according to a press release.
During the two-day session, Starbucks and Workers United came to the negotiating table for the first time in almost a year. This followed an announcement in February that the two sides were ending their bitter standoff.
The coffee giant has been fighting the union, which is a branch of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), for over two years. Workers United broadly advocates for higher wages and more consistent schedules, among a range of other priorities.
This week’s talks are the closest any of the unionized locations, which make up a compact fraction of Starbucks’ total U.S. footprint, will reach a collective agreement.
However, we still have a long way to go.
“There is more to do, but we are committed to working together,” both sides said in a joint statement.
Starbucks and the union plan to meet again in slow May to continue working on the framework that will be the basis for any single-store agreement, according to the release. Once the foundation is laid, individual stores will still need to negotiate and ratify their contracts.
Labor law does not require that the employer and the union enter into a collective agreement, only that both negotiate in good faith. After a year, workers who lose faith in the union will be able to file for decertification, which will speed up negotiations.
