Starbucks in Cary becomes first in state to unionize

A Starbucks in Cary became the first in the state of Illinois to unionize after votes were tallied earlier this week.

The final vote was counted April 26 and came out to 17-4, said Michael Mueller, a shift lead at the 620 Northwest Highway location. The Starbucks has 27 employees there, he said. The union will run through the Workers United Labor Union.

While Mueller said he expects the union to bring several benefits to the location’s employees, he said he hopes more than anything it provides them more of a voice within the company.

“This is a company that calls us partners, but it doesn’t feel like that,” he said. “Now, we’re going to be partners.”

A Starbucks spokesperson said the company thinks the employees and corporation work better without a union, but that they will respect the process.

“We are listening and learning from the partners in these stores as we always do across the country,” the company said in a statement.

The location is one of many Starbucks stores across the country opting to unionize. Efforts ramped up after a store in Buffalo, New York, was able to do so in December, Mueller said.

Since then, about 250 locations have filed for a union, with more than 20 stores across the country having won the right to unionize, said Esau Chavez, an organizer with Workers United. Starbucks has roughly 9,000 locations across the country, the company’s spokesperson said.

Before Buffalo, many thought the odds of unionizing at Starbucks were slim, as employees are classified as “low-skill workers,” Mueller said, which makes them thought of as being replaceable. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, many of those workers became essential, which Mueller said created a new opportunity.

“Nobody thought it was possible until Buffalo did it, especially in our sector,” Mueller said.

Employees at the Cary location hope to see higher pay and more work-life balance as a result of the unionization, he said.

Starting this summer, baristas at Starbucks will be paid between $15 and $23 an hour, a Starbucks spokesperson said.

Mueller said he doesn’t think current pay and the new increases are enough to live on, particularly with recent inflation, he said. The pay also leads to employees working more hours, he said.

“How is anybody supposed to enjoy life when they’re working all the time?” Mueller said.

In order to unionize, the would-be union must file with the National Labor Relations Board with 30% of its employees approving of the move, according to the U.S. Department of Labor worker protection website. Following approval from the National Labor Relations Board, an election is held. If the majority vote in favor, a union is created.

In Cary, efforts to organize began in mid-January, with the location filing to unionize in February, Mueller said.

The location wasn’t the first in the state to file, he said, but other locations became tied up in hearings and appeals with Starbucks in front of the National Labor Relations Board.

Cary, meanwhile, was able to avoid such hearings and had a clear path to holding its election, Mueller said. The store also had a majority of its workers sign the initial petition for a union, he said.

Once the vote was final, Mueller said he felt a mixture of “elation and relief.”

“When I did think about if we’d be first, I was really hoping just for the history-making aspect. That would be really cool,” he said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen … until those votes are counted.”

A location in Peoria became the second to unionize in the state, Chavez and Mueller said. Several locations in the Chicago region area have also filed, they said.