Starbucks barista union recruitment collides with company hiring spree 

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A union of Starbucks baristas is publicly recruiting labour organisers to seek jobs inside cafés, escalating its campaign to represent workers just as the company aims to hire thousands of new ones. 

Workers United is inviting people over social media to be trained as organisers in hopes they will take jobs at Starbucks and persuade peers to join the union. The group says it has won elections at 600 of Starbucks’ more than 10,300 company-operated US stores.

The push comes as Starbucks executives begin adding to headcount after acknowledging that job cuts had diminished its customer service. Workers United’s recruiting means some new hires may also act as agents of the union. 

“Apply for our new program. We’ll help you get the job and teach you how to organize a union. Let’s do this!” the union said in an X post last month. The post links to an application form. 

The union and Starbucks have been in on-off contract talks since the first store was unionised in Buffalo, New York in late 2021.

Sara Kelly, Starbucks’ chief partner officer, said in a recent interview the company had reached more than 30 tentative agreements with Workers United. But negotiations have been tense: last month union baristas staged walkouts over a new dress code.

Working as a “salt,” or a person who signs on at a workplace with the goal of unionising it, has a long history. Jaz Brisack, who helped to organise the first Starbucks store, was a salt when hired as a barista, according to a new book by Brisack titled Get On the Job and Organize. 

“It’s critical to lie as little as possible — ideally, not at all — in order to create a smooth transition from the persona management thought they hired to the person that coworkers will get to know over the course of a campaign,” Brisack wrote.

Now the union has issued a public appeal for more salts, which has been noticed at Starbucks headquarters. 

“We urge the union to focus on representing their actual members by returning to the bargaining table to finalise a contract that is fair and equitable, instead of putting resources against recruiting outside organisers,” Starbucks said.  

At a gathering of 14,000 store managers in Las Vegas this month, senior Starbucks executives did not mention the union during the sessions that the Financial Times was invited to observe.

However, they disclosed plans to increase store payrolls as soon as August, and provided careful guidance on who to hire.

“Be selective,” Mike Grams, chief operating officer, told the managers.  

“So this is really important to us, OK?” Grams said. “Picking the right people that are going to join your fabulous team and making sure that we get that decision right.” 

Three and a half years after its first organising success, Workers United represents 12,000 baristas. Starbucks has more than 200,000 employees in its North American stores after headcount fell by almost a fifth in the past two years, according to Bernstein Research. 

Michelle Eisen, a Workers United bargaining representative and former barista, said union members have for years advocated for more paid hours and better personnel levels. 

“The company’s recent moves are validation that they’ve heard us,” she said. “That’s why we started a programme to encourage barista hopefuls to apply for openings at Starbucks stores to help fill staffing shortages, while also having conversations about the power we all share when we organise.” 

Kate Bronfenbrenner, senior lecturer at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said that going public with a salting campaign can be a way to deliver a message. 

“This is part of the [union’s] pressure on the company, saying: ‘We’re sending salts in,’” Bronfenbrenner said. “It’s a way of saying, we’re going to keep organising, no matter what you do.”