GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Employees of a Starbucks on Green Bay’s east side are hoping to form a union.
Workers United says the employees at the 2230 Main St. store petitioned the National Labor Relations Board Monday morning to be able to hold a union election.
A majority of the store’s staff signed a letter and emailed it to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Friday, writing:
‘It is our belief that the working conditions we are regularly forced to endure disrupt our ability to do our jobs with dignity, and taking collective action to change said conditions is our best, and only, way forward. We are committed to forging a strong contract that returns the pride and honor that the position of Starbucks Barista should have, and hold Starbucks to its promise of working with us, ‘with transparency, dignity, and respect.’
The store’s staff is the first group in Northeast Wisconsin to take steps toward forming a union since workers at a store on Northland Avenue in Appleton won a representation election June 22.
The Green Bay store is part of a growing movement among Starbucks employees to unionize. In August, Starbucks lifted hourly pay for non-union shops to nearly $17 an hour. The company says unionized stores must first bargain for these same benefits.
