Starting November 13th, Starbucks workers across the nation have taken to the picket lines in a 6-week strike. Led by the Youth, they struggle against both their company, and organized labor’s old guard.
Since 2021, Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) spread from a single store in Buffalo, New York, into a nationwide movement. For the last 4 years, SBWU has fought for a contract with the Starbucks coffee company. The Union demands include higher wages, better hours, and an end to the company’s unfair labor practices.
SBWU efforts are part of a larger, growing trend of trade union activity in recent years. The coffee shop confederation is also significant as it is being led by young people. Even more surprising is this occurring after a major decline in union membership and activity.
American labor has problems on all sides. The buisnesses participate in union busting to crush the unions on the outside. These young organizers are also plagued by internal problems that must be dealt with should they wish to succeed.
The return of American labor
In the 1970s, as the mid west was in the midst of deindustrializaiton, a student radical, who had participated in the anti war movement, joined the ranks of the United Auto Workers. It was he and many other young workers who reinviograted their local union politics.
That young trade unionist was Jonathan Melrod. Melrod described his experiences in the UAW in his book Fighting Times: Organizing on the Front Lines of the Class War. In recent years, Melrod worked with several SBWU organizers in the early days of their union.
Melrod draws comparisons between the striking Starbucks baristas and his activities as a union steward in the 1970s. Melrod explains how the United Auto Workers Union thrived on a legion of young workers passionate about Trade Unionism. The organizer turned author explained this new generation of union organizers emerging due to worsening conditions. This can be compared to how the youth is attracted to more progressive politicians in the electoral ring
“People used to need to work only one job” Melrod explains. “Now, the Starbucks workers have to fight just to get enough hours!” he continued.
A double-edged sword? The downsides of American trade unions.
Trade Unions are incredibly important as political organizations to advocate for the rights of the worker. Without trade unions, working families wouldn’t benefit from daily demands such as maternity leave and the weekend. However, the Labor movement has many internal issues, which have hurt the rank-and-file members who make up the unions.
The Service Workers Union SEIU is familiar with corruption. This is including misuse of funds and the protection of sexual predators within its ranks. Acts of legislation that build the Labor Bureaucracy and intertwine the matters of Unions with the government are an issue in themselves. The National Labor Relations Board, established in 1935, fails to protect workers from unfair firings and violations of labor law.
The problems with the old guard of American Labor now infect these new unionizing efforts at places like Amazon and Starbucks. Starbucks Workers United is part of the larger Workers United Union, which is a subsidiary of the SEIU.
These issues of corruption in the major trade unions such as SEIU, hurt their auxillaries because they are inherently intwined. The leaders of SBWU answer to SEIU, and it’s the SEIU who have the financial and political influence that helps the smaller unions weather the harsh storms.
The fight against the old guard
Despite the many institutional issues within the American Labor movement, young Trade Unionists continue to keep up the struggle. A Strike Captain with the ongoing Starbucks strike, who wishes to remain anonymous, spoke about their thoughts on SBWU’s leadership during the strike.
The Strike Captain said that SBWU- an extension of the SEIU subsidiary Workers United- criticized the planning of the strike. The Strike Captain said that preparations for the strike started in August, when they should have started in March.
The main criticism from the Strike Captain had to do with the Tentative Agreement that SBWU included a clause regarding future strikes, as well as the quality of the demands in the contract.
“The TA has no economic demands included in it at all, nothing about pay or benefits or anything like that. That’s the main reason for the strike.” The Strike Captain said.
Part of the proposal that the Union is striking for includes a no-strike clause, which would forfeit the Union’s main tool of collective bargaining, in exchange for what the Barista said were minimal concessions. The Strike Captain said about the relation between SBWU’s demands and the no-strike clause.
“Then there is still the problem of the no strike clause, it’s setting up Starbucks works for total failure before the contract has even been won, how can we abandon the most powerful tool in our tool belt? It doesn’t make any sense, and it seems like bending over backwards for the company.”
Others speak out
This strike captain is not alone in their criticisms of the Tentative Agreement. In the summer of 2024, an SBWU union delegate named Jake Compton was removed from his position by Workers United National leadership for leveling similar criticisms of the no-strike clause.
New Labor Press, a publication focusing on the American trade union movement, has also published criticisms of this problem, laying the issues with the strike at the feet of what it referred to as “state unions,” such as SEIU. New Labor Press has called for Starbucks workers to broaden their struggle to include the SEIU and to include a stronger list of demands.
The criticisms laid out by these individuals and organizations demonstrates a growing frustration with many of the internal problems with organized labor. However, instead of abandoning the practice, voices like New Labor Press continue to champion collective bargaining as not only an instrument for bettering conditions on the shop floor, but also as a solution to the problems they face from within.
