For the second time in as many weeks, workers of a Minnesota Starbucks location have announced their intention to unionize.
The latest announcement came Tuesday from the workers of a Minneapolis Starbucks at the intersection of Lyndale Avenue and 54th Street. There are now four total Minnesota Starbucks locations that have declared their intention to unionize, joining more than 150 locations nationwide.
That nationwide growth was a key motivator for workers of the Lyndale location to file for union representation.
“We had been talking about unionizing for a long time,” said Phoebe Dehring, a supervisor for the store. “But we were worried about losing our jobs. So when we saw other stores unionizing, it actually felt like we had a chance.”
Dehring, 23, said the store’s workers have tried to go through corporate channels to resolve their issues, which include a lack of scheduling protections for its workers, a desire for increased pay and more comprehensive sick time, but the company was uninterested in addressing them.
The issue of sick time was a big factor in deciding to unionize, said Dehring, who has worked at the store for six years. The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated to the workers that Starbucks wasn’t doing enough.
“We have protected sick time, but it is hardly anything,” she says, adding that the company offered a one-time benefit to cover wages if a worker got infected with COVID.
However, several employees have gotten sick multiple times through exposure at the store, she said, and have had to exhaust their personal sick days to cover it. Dehring said the store also has one worker who got COVID-19 at work and has dealt with long-term effects that have left him unable to do his job and the company has not done anything to help him.
“I really do feel that a company as big as Starbucks should be able to give us more sick time during a pandemic and be willing to cover when we get COVID,” Dehring said.
Dehring also pointed to pay as a top issue, saying the company has not raised wages to keep up with rising inflation, which has forced several of its employees to take up second and third jobs.
“It definitely doesn’t keep up with inflation and it doesn’t even keep up with rent costs,” she said.
The location has also simultaneously added more workers while halving the hours of existing workers, which has exacerbated the issue.
Workers from two Starbucks locations in St. Paul and Minneapolis that previously announced unionization plans will receive ballots in April to approve the unionization. Dehring says she expects similar votes for her location sometime in May.
Starbucks spokespeople have previously said the company will "bargain in good faith" and "respect our partners' right to organize."