Union effort fails at Mill Valley's Strawberry Starbucks
An effort to unionize a Starbucks in Mill Valley fell short by a single vote.
Ella Clark, 17, a barista who led the campaign at the Strawberry store, said six workers voted yes and seven no. She said the loss is a disappointment because the organizers had anticipated a victory.
“Obviously I'm upset,” she said. “First I was sad, then I was mad. There were a lot of factors that contributed to the loss. But there's not anything that can be done about that now.”
The campaign did not include the nearby Starbucks counter inside the Safeway at the Strawberry Village Shopping Center.
Starbucks has faced a forceful wave of store unionizations that began in December with a shop in Buffalo, New York. More than 100 stores have voted to unionize, according to NPR.
The process requires the organizers to inform the National Labor Relations Board of their intention to hold a union vote. The board catalogs the votes.
“This movement didn't start at Strawberry Village. It doesn't end in Strawberry Village,” Clark said. “This isn't the end. This is bigger than us.”
The workers sought increased starting wages for baristas, extra pay when the store is short staffed, credit and debit card tips and a voice in whether to allow mobile orders during a rush or short staffing.
Starbucks, founded in 1971 in Seattle, has grown to more than 33,000 stores with $29.1 billion in net revenue in 2021, according to its annual fiscal report.
At the Strawberry store, there were 21 eligible employees when the union process was initiated, Clark said. Four quit before the vote happened, leaving 17 eligible voters. Clark said she coordinated the vote among employees, ensuring they received ballots and teaching them how to vote correctly.
“It's this whole process and we wanted to make sure everyone got the process right,” she said.
Despite her efforts, the process did not advance as she expected. Two employees did not receive ballots, and only one received a replacement in the mail, she said. The second person had to make an appointment at the National Labor Relations Board office in San Francisco and retrieve a ballot in person to vote.
Clark said the board did not receive two votes by employees who assured her the ballots were put in the mail. She was told that both votes favored unionization.
“We would have won,” she said.
Clark said two assistant managers and one former employee submitted votes that were contested and not included in the total.
Clark said an announcement in May that the company was offering new benefits to non-unionized stores might have contributed to the loss.
Fernando Hernandez, a union organizer in Los Angeles for the Western states region of Workers UnitedSEIU, said there are seven unionized Starbucks stores in California, four in Southern California and three in the Santa Cruz area.
Hernandez said one store in Capitola voted to unionize the same day as the Strawberry vote.
“It was unfortunate. I know Ella there worked really hard,” he said. “I think it's still a great job that she did. It was close, some of them are very close.”
A Starbucks spokesperson said previously that the company opposes unionization.
“We are better together as partners without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed,” the spokesperson said.