Valparaiso Starbucks votes to unionize
Location becomes 2nd in Indiana to join nationwide network
Baristas at a Valparaiso Starbucks became the second in the state to join Starbucks Workers United when they voted 16 to 5 Friday in favor of unionizing. To date, 275 Starbucks stores have unionized.
“Most of us were extremely excited and extremely ready for next steps,” barista and union organizer Reagan Skaggs said. She said 22 employees from the location at 2310 LaPorte Ave. in the Valparaiso Marketplace qualified to vote. Twenty-one showed up to vote at the Valparaiso University Student Union.
The baristas will now join the nationwide network of Starbucks Workers United.
“There will be one big contract with maybe some regional differences, but Starbucks has refused to work with the union,” Skaggs said.
Starbucks did not respond to a call asking for comment, but in a statement emailed to the Post-Tribune last month, a Starbucks spokesperson said “We’ve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed.”
By unionizing the group hopes to force the company to offer fulltime workers a guaranteed number of hours. She said her store is currently operating on a skeleton crew for daytime hours.
Skaggs said Starbucks began severe restrictions on hours during the recent holiday season, the busiest time of the year for the company. She says that keeps some baristas from qualifying for benefits and others from simply getting enough hours to make ends meet.
“I used to get upper 30s (in hours per week), low 40s with overtime and now I’m getting upper 20s, low 30s. We’re still working five days a week,” said Skaggs, who said that makes it hard to work a side job.
“They talk about how you can pick up hours at other stores, but unfortunately, other stores have the same issues so it’s difficult to pick up hours in that way,” Skaggs said.
In a Jan. 18 statement, a Starbucks spokesperson said that “Union allegations that Starbucks is intentionally limiting partner hours to restrict benefits provided perpetuates a false narrative. We have consistently offered all partners who meet eligibility requirements industry-leading benefits access.”
The group also wants the company to deal with the rare abusive customer.
“At our store, unfortunately, we do have a history of a couple of customers who are repeat sexual harassers,” said Skaggs, who has worked at the unionizing shop for a year and a half.
She said her coworkers have been dealing with sexual harassment since before she started on the job.
On the other end of the customer spectrum, Skaggs said the store saw an outpouring of support during its recent sip-in on Feb. 11.
“It was a huge community outpouring and that was heartwarming,” Skaggs said. “We are in union country. I got a lot of cards that day who said ‘If you need anything here is who you call.’”
Skaggs said “there was a million and one” union busting tactics going on at the store since the announcement was made of the intention to hold a vote on unionization. “They pulled people off the floor for one-on-one union conversations,” Skaggs said of management in recent weeks.
She said there was also increased presence by management, including managers of other stores. The National Labor Relations Board has filed numerous complaints against the company for allegedly attempting to illegally suppress unionization efforts.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, the head of the Senate Committee on Health Education, Labor, and Pensions, invited Starbucks co-founder and interim CEO Howard Schultz to testify in March about his company’s labor relations with employees attempting to unionize.
Schultz, who has plans to step down as interim CEO in April, sent Sanders a letter last week declining to attend and offered up a vice president in his stead. There is talk of Sanders having Schultz subpoenaed if he refuses to attend.