Why This Starbucks In Worcester Can't Accept Tips Like Other Stores

WORCESTER, MA — Pay for your coffee at a Starbucks almost anywhere, and you'll be asked if you want to add a credit card tip to your order — a new perk instituted by the company in September amid a wave of unionization votes across the U.S.

But if you're buying coffee at the East Central Street Starbucks store in Worcester, you can't leave a credit card tip. The store is banned from the practice, according to the Seattle-based company, because workers there elected to join a union.

The East Central Street Starbucks — perhaps the busiest in the Worcester area due to its location right off I-290 — is the only one around that doesn't offer credit card tipping.

"Even though union workers were the ones who pressured Starbucks into giving workers credit card tipping, Starbucks refused to provide credit card tipping to union stores, claiming that we had to bargain over it," said Casey Moore, a spokesperson for Starbucks Workers United union group, and a barista at one of the first union Starbucks in Buffalo, N.Y.

Starbucks claims it has to bargain with each store over accepting credit card tips, adding that customers can still leave cash tips. The lack of credit card tips, however, may mean hundreds in lost wages for union employees.

"Adding credit card tipping may change the terms or conditions of employment for union-represented locations, therefore it’s subject to the collective bargaining process," a Starbucks spokesperson said. "At stores involved in union organizing, Starbucks cannot lawfully announce new terms or conditions of employment because these might positively or negatively affect employee choices about unions."

Moore countered that union Starbucks employees have waived their rights to bargain over credit card tips. The company is withholding the option for union stores as part of a wider effort to discourage labor organizing, Moore charged.

The National Labor Relations Board has gotten involved, filing a charge against the company over banning credit card tipping at the union stores.

Tipping has long been an issue at Starbucks. For decades, the company's tipping policy involved pooling all tips in a given area and then distributing them among each employee. But credit card tipping — a hallmark of smaller coffee shops — was never an option for customers until last year.

The 14 employees at the East Central Starbucks unanimously voted to unionize last June on the same day as stores in Brookline, Westford and Boston. Employees at more than 200 Starbucks locations have joined unions since April 2021. The company has attempted to stifle the wave of union activity, and an NLRB judge in a March said Starbucks engaged in "widespread misconduct demonstrating a general disregard for the employees’ fundamental rights."