The movement to organize unions at Michigan Starbucks’ locations
Starbucks shops in Michigan have been using the momentum picked up in Buffalo to work toward collective bargaining agreements.
Overall union membership has been declining for decades and was at its lowest point last year. However there is a lot of energy, particularly among young people, to create unions in order to collectively bargain for more power and higher wages in the workplace.
After Starbucks workers in Buffalo, New York successfully voted to unionize, other coffee workers in Michigan have been following their lead. The push has gone so far as to reach coffee shops outside of the Starbucks franchise.
“Starbucks claims to have a partnership right now, which is why they call all of their employee’s partners, but that’s something we’re not feeling and we feel like a union is the only way we can get that,” — Bennett Proegler, Starbucks employee in Ann Arbor.
Detroit Today reached out to Starbucks for comment. They did not respond to us in time for this segment.
Listen: The fight to create a union at a Michigan Starbucks’ location.
Guest
Bennett Proegler is an Ann Arbor Starbucks employee organizing with Starbucks Workers United. Proegler says his co-workers want more effective safety rules, higher wages, and more power to decide what happens at the store location.
“Starbucks claims to have a partnership right now,” says Proegler, “which is why they call all of their employee’s partners, but that’s something we’re not feeling and we feel like a union is the only way we can get that.”
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