Workers at two Starbucks in the Twin Cities push for unionization

Workers at two Twin Cities Starbucks want the coffee company and local managers to let them form a union.

According to Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, an "overwhelming majority of workers" at the Starbucks coffee shop on Snelling Avenue near Stanford Avenue in St. Paul and the Starbucks on Cedar Avenue near 47^th Street in Minneapolis signed union authorization cards.

The workers petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for union representation elections.

"We as workers at Starbucks invest our time, well-being and safety into a company that has shown repeated apathy towards its employees," the workers said in a letter to Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson on Friday. "We work in the midst of an ongoing global health crisis, and see little to no support."

The coffee shops are the first in Minnesota to join the national Starbucks Workers United movement in which workers at more than 70 locations have filed for union elections out of the thousands of Starbucks across the country. Workers at two Starbucks outlets in the Buffalo, N.Y., area unionized.

Kasey Copeland, 25, one of about 30 employees at the Minneapolis Starbucks that petitioned for a union election, said she hopes a union will help improve conditions of people who often get overlooked.

"I have been in the food service industry for a long time," said Copeland, who has worked at different Starbucks locations over the last three years. "These positions they are mentally, physically and emotionally draining."

She said she hopes unions will help Starbucks workers at corporate-run stores get better pay, more support from management vs. verbally abusive customers as well as become more inclusive. Copeland said she thinks there is more momentum behind unionization as more workers throughout the service industry have started to file petitions.

"It just became more and more apparent that we can do this, that it is definitely possible to make a change," she said.

In response to an inquiry from the Star Tribune, a Starbucks spokesperson said executives have told employees the company would respect their right to organize and would bargain in good faith.

The spokesperson added, "Our belief is that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed."