Starbucks aims to return to the bargaining table.
The coffee giant’s management says it wants to restart contract negotiations with its union, Starbucks Workers United, in January.
The company sent a letter to the union this week with a list of conditions for any future negotiations. The union said it’s reviewing the terms.
The announcement of more negotiations comes two years after a Starbucks unit voted to unionize. Two years later, none of the coffee firm’s over 350 locations nationwide have a contract.
The new talks could open up the possibility of at least some locations acquiring a contract.
However, the conditions Starbucks has for reaching a collective agreement may be too much for SWU. The company has long insisted that video and audio call-ins to negotiations would not be allowed, a policy the union says is untenable.
To speed up the process of a collective agreement, SWU proposed a nationwide contract that would encompass all unionized locations, with some special accommodations for certain stores. Starbucks refused, saying each location had to negotiate an individual contract.
The stagnating contract talks have created problems for the union. Decertification efforts have been popping up around the country, backed up by anti-union legal groups. Almost 20 locations have filed to decertify their unions, with several being thrown out by the National Labor Relations Board after it found Starbucks violated federal labor regulations.
Still, the union seems to have strong support generally. SWU recently pulled off one of its largest labor actions. On Starbucks’ popular Red Cup Day, hundreds of workers walked off the job in protest.
During negotiations, the union has demanded that Starbucks increase wages, improve workplace conditions at its stores and improve staffing.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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