HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Baristas at one Huntsville Starbucks are unionizing. According to Starbucks Workers United, workers at the location on Memorial Parkway & University Drive voted 8-2 to join the union.
It now becomes the third location in the state to unionize, following a location in Birmingham and a location in Scottsboro.
News 19 spoke with Briar Wolf, a barista at the Memorial Parkway & University Drive store. She voted in favor of joining the union and said she believes it’s a step in the right direction.
“It’s really a relief to know that we have one big voice now instead of lots of little voices,” Wolf said.
However, she said now it’s time to dig in. “Now the real work starts of actually fighting for what we want, what we need, there at the store.”
Wolf told News 19 that this location is “chronically understaffed”, which makes it hard to keep up with customers and goals set by corporate.
“They have drive-thru time goals, they have service goals and that sort of thing,” she said. “In order to be able to meet those goals, we need more people on our shifts.”
Wolf said workers are also pushing for higher pay.
“A lot of people talk down on service industry jobs and say, ‘oh, well, that’s not a real job’ or ‘that’s not a job that you should depend on for a living,’” she said. “Any job should be a job that you can depend on to make a living.”
Wolf told News 19 that 17 staff members were eligible to vote. Of that, 8 voted in favor of unionizing and 2 voted against it. The next step in the process is to elect a bargaining delegate.
“We think that with our voices in a collective like this, that we’ll be able to actually effect some change,” Wolf added.
More than 11,000 baristas are part of Starbucks Workers United at more than 580 stores nationwide.
Starbucks sent News 19 a statement saying that it supports “partners’ right to choose.”
“At Starbucks, our success starts and ends with our partners (employees). We respect our partners’ right to choose, through a fair and democratic process, to be represented by a union or not to be represented by a union and will continue to work together to make Starbucks the best job in retail.”
Starbucks
Wolf said she hopes baristas at other locations across Huntsville follow the lead of those at her location.
“It’s really great to be the first Starbucks store here in Huntsville, and hopefully we’ll have more soon,” she said.
The post This Starbucks votes to join union, first in Huntsville to unionize appeared first on WHNT.
