CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – 360 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since 2021. Starbucks Red Cup Day, the coffee giant’s biggest sales day of the year, seemed like the perfect time for a strike. In Wisconsin, two stores in Madison and one in Plover were shut down.
Not one of the stores that voted in the union has reached a contract with their employer. Why? Starbucks says it will negotiate only with individual stores. The union, Workers United, insists that all unionized stores negotiate together. The only problem with that is that stores voted individually; there’s never been a Starbucks-wide union vote.
Starbucks is also correct for store-by-store negotiations. The operations and costs of running a Starbucks in San Francisco are fundamentally different than their store in Ogalala, Nebraska. Of course the staffing, and the work rules, and the pay will be different. A one-size-fits-all contract is ludicrous.
The union is making two other mistakes: First, making and serving coffee is low-skilled work. If labor costs become too high, parts of the business will be automated. There are many other places that serve coffee, like Kwik Trip, where customers push a button on a machine and get the brew they want. Just like the technology already exists to make a touchless fast-food hamburger, the barista could be mechanized out of a job. Secondly, the ability to pay a generous wage hinges on a company’s ability to make a profit. Shutting down your employer on their biggest sales day of the year means there’s less money in the kitty for everyone: to cover operating expenses, to pay wages, and to reward the company’s investors. Sabotaging Red Cup Day means there’s less for everyone. That’s a lose-lose, when the goal of any successful negotiation is to find the win-win.
Chris Conley
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