Employees at the Hillsboro Starbucks located at 2002 N.E. Stucki Ave. have filed for a union election, joining dozens of stores in Oregon that have taken similar steps. Hundreds of Starbucks locations across the country have unionized in the past year.
Employees at the Hillsboro Starbucks located at 2002 N.E. Stucki Ave. have filed for a union election, joining dozens of stores in Oregon that have taken similar steps. Hundreds of Starbucks locations across the country have unionized in the past year.
Workers at a Hillsboro Starbucks have filed for a union election, becoming the 25th Oregon store to organize, according to a recent filing with the National Labor Relations Board.
The Starbucks Workers United labor group, which has grown alongside a national effort by Starbucks employees to unionize, made the announcement via Twitter on Jan. 31 that the Hillsboro store located at 2002 N.E. Stucki Ave. had filed for an election.
A recently signed petition filed on the same day with the National Labor Relations Board confirms employees’ intent to hold a unionization vote. A date for that vote has not yet been set.
A letter signed by 15 employees at the Stucki Avenue branch states that they are taking this step to ensure better conditions for all Starbucks employees.
“We are unionizing to better help each of us in this company, regardless of position,” the letter states. “Our organizing committee includes a variety of partners, some old and some new. Some shift supervisors, some baristas.”
“Each person comes to Starbucks with their own story and allows the company to become a part of their life,” the statement continued. “There is an equal desire in each of us to create a better store environment, for the betterment of the company and each of our fellow partners.”
Starbucks said it is listening to employees’ concerns, though the company thinks their problems can be better addressed without union involvement.
“We are listening and learning from the partners in these stores as we always do across the country,” the company said in a written statement sent to Pamplin Media. “From the beginning, 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. We remain committed to our partners and will continue to work together, side-by-side, to make Starbucks a company that works for everyone."
A total of 14 Portland Starbucks stores have voted to unionize, with the latest being the location at 102nd Avenue and Stark Street, which voted 13-3 for forming a union.
Aside from unionization efforts at other stores in Oregon and in the Portland area, specifically, employees at several Portland stores also recently participated in a three-day strike to raise awareness for the national unionization effort back in December.
A shorter, one-day nationwide strike was organized just a month prior during Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day, when stores hand out free reusable cups to customers who order one of their holiday-themed drinks.
Coffee isn’t the only industry that is seeing unionization efforts and labor upheaval in the Portland area.
Health care professionals, grocery store workers and other sectors have also jumped on the trend of organizing to demand higher wages and policy changes from their corporate bosses.
Most recently, a Hillsboro New Seasons Market pursued unionization but appeared to reject forming a union during a September vote. The results of that election have been contested by the labor group that helped employees there organize.
The Cedar Hills New Seasons in Beaverton became the latest of the neighborhood market stores to unionize, and the first in Portland’s suburbs after six Portland New Seasons locations successfully formed a union last year.
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