Starbucks said Friday it’s committed to bargaining with its unionized workers and reaching labor agreements next year, a major reversal for the coffee chain after two years fighting the unionization of its U.S. stores. In a letter to Lynne Fox, the president of the Workers United union, Starbucks Chief Partner Officer Sara Kelly said the current bargaining impasse between the two sides “should not be acceptable to either of us.” Kelly asked to restart bargaining in January.
(Bloomberg) -- Starbucks Corp. said it reached out to the union representing hundreds of its stores to try to end an impasse over contract talks, a conflict that has frayed the coffee giant’s relationship with some of its frontline employees.Most Read from BloombergApps That Use AI to Undress Women in Photos Soaring in UseThe Record Rush to Buy a Rolex or a Patek Philippe Is OverCarlyle’s Rubenstein Is in Talks to Acquire Baltimore OriolesAmericans Rush to Portugal Ahead of Changes to Expat Tax
Starbucks wants to resume contract talks with the recently formed labour union that represents thousands of the coffee chain’s US baristas, the company said on Friday, aiming to break what it called a months-long “impasse”. The announcement comes a day before the two-year anniversary of a successful vote for union representation at a Starbucks café in Buffalo, New York, an election that kicked off organising efforts at hundreds more stores around the country. The Starbucks Workers United (SWU) union now represents workers at about 350 of the 9,000 stores that Starbucks operates in the US.