Starbucks, US workers’ union reach tentative agreements on key issues

By

 AFP

US coffee giant Starbucks reached tentative agreements with the Workers United union on a number of key issues during talks to draw up a collective bargaining framework, the two parties said Friday.

If ratified, the deal would be a Starbucks’ first in the United States. 

“The two-day bargaining session this week in Chicago advanced several matters within the framework intended to be the foundation of each single-store contract,” the two parties said in a joint statement. 

“We are pleased that the matters discussed were grounded in the needs and concerns of both the company and union-represented partners,” they added. 

They said they had reached an agreement in principle on a number of issues, including job protection, and support and training for unionized Starbucks employees.

“We are proud of our progress to date,” they continued, adding that the negotiations between the two sides would continue. 

Contacted by AFP, the group and the union did not confirm either the subjects still outstanding or the timetable for the third round of negotiations since talks between the two sides officially began on April 24.

The goal is to establish a “foundational framework” on key issues such as wages, scheduling policy and access to health care, the union said in a statement on April 23. 

Once this framework is agreed, contracts would then be negotiated by each individual store and ratified accordingly, according to Starbucks. 

The Workers United drive to organize was launched back in August 2021.

The union now represents more than 10,000 employees at over 425 locations in 43 states and the US capital. 

Starbucks owns nearly 10,000 coffee shops in the United States, and more than 900 in Canada, employing around 200,000 people.

In addition to Workers Union, the coffee giant is also negotiating with other unions representing employees in the US and Canada, including the powerful International Brotherhood of Teamsters in one branch in Pittsburgh, and United Steelworkers in 13 branches in Canada. 

Several thousand unionized employees went on strike in the United States on 16 November, the day of a major promotional campaign by the coffee chain for the year-end holiday season.