Starbucks Unionization: What is it and What does it mean for Consumers?

Written by Penny Oh (W’24); Edited by Kendall Allen (W’25)

If you’ve walked past the Starbucks on 34th and Walnut recently, you might have noticed people stationed outside. They stand behind a table with signs strung across it as they try to offer pamphlets in your direction while speaking out about unionization. If you’re anything like me, you likely brushed the papers aside and walked indoors to get your coffee, thinking nothing of it. But at a second glance, the concept of Starbucks workers unionizing has greater consequences than one might realize. 

While Starbucks is one of the fast-food companies facing the greatest threat of unionization, the business is hardly facing this problem alone. Employees at stores like Chipotle, McDonalds, and Amazon are also trying to find ways to advocate for themselves and improve their rights through unionization. This is largely due to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic combined with the current Russia-Ukraine crisis. As production chains have slowed and the cost of living has increased, baristas and hourly-paid workers have found it more difficult to maintain their lifestyles. Therefore, they’ve turned to unionization as a way to try and increase stagnant wages and leverage their numbers to gain greater employee benefits. 

Starbucks has responded very negatively to these efforts of unionization. The company has a website called We Are One Starbucks which provides information about why unionization at Starbucks is unnecessary and details the reasons why people should not support it. It also includes general sentiments about how Starbucks is an inclusive workplace and provides employees with significant benefits already. On a smaller scale, managers of several individual stores have also taken action against workers who have violated the terms of unionization. 

This tension between Starbucks and its employees has not yet directly reached consumers, other than the occasional tables we may see positioned outside of stores. However, depending on the future of this debate within the company, consumers could be affected in a number of ways.

If employees are able to unionize, some of their requests include increasing hourly pay to up to $25/hour as well as improving healthcare benefits. This would help them combat the current climate of inflation but also would have the potential to increase prices at Starbucks for consumers. However, if Starbucks continues to shut down unionization efforts, employees have suggested that they might request consumers to participate in strikes or boycotts to support their cause. Additionally, employees would continue to lack significant control over their wages. 

Starbucks employees have not yet formed an official union and therefore have not presented an exact list of requests to the company. It will be fascinating for us all to see where the future of this debate goes and whether employees are able to move forward with these efforts or whether Starbucks officially ends unionization. But regardless of the outcome, it will be interesting for consumers to witness these changes and continue to weigh the pros and cons of unionization both from an ethical and personal standpoint.