Workers at a Starbucks in Los Angeles have voted to unionize, marking the 33rd California location to join Starbucks Workers United.
The 11-3 vote was delivered Friday, Jan. 4.
The move to organize has grown rapidly in recent years, with more than 370 Starbucks stores in 41 states and Washington, D.C. unionizing since December 2021, despite heavy pushback from the coffee chain.
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Locally, that includes locations in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Anaheim and Huntington Beach.
Andrew Gillespie, a shift supervisor at the 5757 Wilshire Blvd. location in LA, said management tried to dissuade workers from joining the union.
“At first, they said they wanted to let us know that the company was behind us,” the 26-year-old LA resident said. “But then they started posting signs and said our benefits could go away if we unionized. They also said, ‘We can make that raise you’ve been asking for happen if you vote no.’ “
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The raise management was referring to is an automatic pay hike workers already get each year, Gillespie said.
“The starting wage for Starbucks employees in California is $17 an hour, but under the contract we drafted, no one would make less than $20 an hour,” he said.
In a statement issued Monday, Starbucks said the National Labor Relations Board must still certify the outcome of Friday’s vote. And before that, both sides have the opportunity to challenge individual ballots.
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If the vote is certified, negotiations will move forward. The statement didn’t address allegations that the company has attempted to block workers from unionizing.
In a Dec. 8 letter sent to Starbucks Workers United, Starbucks Chief Partner Officer Sara Kelly proposed a path forward for bargaining…
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