Starbucks Woodland Avenue Location Unionizes

DULUTH, Minn. — Starbucks workers at a Duluth location have voted to unionize.

The 11 to 8 vote of approval adds the Woodland Avenue Starbucks as the 7th location in Minnesota to join the Starbucks Workers United.

Video shown is from a one-day strike the workers held in November. The Duluth workers are among more than 9,000 Starbucks union workers demanding for what they call, “fair pay and hours, safe working conditions, and a commitment to quality and culture that reflects the Starbucks brand they built.”

A Woodland Avenue barista is excited the decision has been made.

“I feel like that’s a really exciting step. And creates a culture like on a broader scale within Starbucks of respect and accountability between baristas and management and corporate and I think that’s a really positive step,” said Sophie Niedermier, Starbucks barista.

Starbucks has maintained its commitment to a fair, flexible, and equitable workplace. This is a statement provided by Starbucks on Woodland Avenue’s decision to unionize:

We respect the rights of our partners to organize and bargain collectively, and we are eager to reach ratified agreements in 2024 for represented stores. Our commitment to all partners to offer a bridge to a better future remains unchanged.

As a next step, following the January 11 vote, the NLRB must certify the outcome of the union representation election. The steps include: 

1. Once the NLRB certifies the outcome of the election, Workers United must identify a bargaining representative for the store and send Starbucks an initial bargaining demand (a requirement for Starbucks to initiate the bargaining process).

2. Following receipt of a demand to bargain, Starbucks will communicate through the representative identified by Workers United to propose a date and location for a first in-person contract bargaining session. Workers United must confirm a session proposed by the company or suggest a mutually agreeable alternative date to begin in-person negotiations towards a first contract for our Woodland Avenue store in Duluth. 

3. Once a first contract bargaining session date is confirmed, the company and union bargaining committees meet in-person to begin negotiations. At a store’s first session, parties traditionally discuss ground rules for how parties will conduct themselves throughout the bargaining process. Then, both parties begin the time-intensive process of exchanging and discussing proposals and counterproposals they’d like to be included in a store’s collective bargaining agreement.

4. Over the course of multiple bargaining sessions, both parties debate specific contract proposals and make counterproposals in the hopes of reaching an agreement on specific contract terms. Negotiations over specific proposals take place over a series of sessions, with the parties exchanging multiple drafts of proposals and counterproposals until they find common ground. In these sessions, proposals are either accepted or countered with alternative proposals.

5. Should bargaining, discussion and negotiation result in agreement on all outstanding issues, the employer’s legal team will draft a store-specific collective bargaining agreement, which will include all tentative agreements approved by the company and the union bargaining committees, will be prepared. The full collective bargaining agreement will then be presented by the union to store partners for a ratification vote.

6. The store’s partners will either accept or reject the agreement. If they ratify it, all parties will be subject to the terms of the CBA for the duration of the agreement.