Starbucks and the union representing its workers ended a two-day contract bargaining session over a variety of issues on a positive note, having made “significant progress.”
Starbucks Workers United, which covers employees across hundreds of the coffee chain’s U.S. stores, said a joint statement with the company that the discussions laid a “foundational framework that will contribute to single-store contract negotiations and ratification.”
“Starbucks & Workers United remain committed to building a positive, productive relationship,” they said in a statement provided to Quartz on Friday.
Starbucks and Workers United said that it will reconvene with company representatives in late May to continue to build on the single-store contract framework, and that the two parties are committed to working together.
The company and union representatives discussed a “broad range of topics, including a shared commitment to mutual respect, the process to resolve grievances, and details relating to the union’s representation” of Starbucks baristas during their two-day session in Atlanta, Georgia.
Starbucks’ union drive plows on
More than 400 Starbucks stores representing upwards of 10,000 employees across the country have voted to unionize since 2021. Starbucks has positioned itself against the union from the onset of the campaign, and has faced several accusations of illegally harassing, intimidating, and firing employees who were involved in unionization efforts.
This week, Starbucks appeared before the Supreme Court as part of its efforts to ensure that traditional rules for preliminary injunctions apply when federal district courts consider National Labor Review Board (NLRB) requests for extraordinary 10(j) injunctions. Injunctions are a tool used by courts to require parties to do, or not do, certain things, like re-hire workers that had been fired (as was the case when the NLRB reinstated seven Starbucks employees who were fired in 2022 during a unionization push.)
The company and union agreed to resume talks back in February amid mediation discussions over ongoing litigation. Starbucks sued Workers United in federal court in Iowa last October, demanding that the union stop using the name “Starbucks Workers United” and claiming that a pro-Palestine social media post from the union following the Oct.7 attacks by Hamas in Israel hurt its reputation. The union responded with a lawsuit in Pennsylvania federal court, asking for approval to continue to use the company’s name and a similar logo.
They are also involved in litigation over Starbucks allegedly offering benefits to non-unionized stores while withholding them from organized employees in May 2022.