Green Bay Starbucks Workers Join Campaign For Union Representation

By Erik Gunn, Wisconsin Examiner

October 11, 2022

Employees at a Starbucks café in Green Bay filed a petition Monday for a union election. So far, workers at four Wisconsin Starbucks locations have voted to unionize in a campaign that has been underway nationwide for more than a year.

They are among more than 100 outlets nationwide in the coffee chain where employees have voted for union representation, according to union representatives, and several hundreds more where workers have been campaigning for a union. The union drive has focused on issues including pay and scheduling for Starbucks baristas and other employees.

The workers who have joined the campaign are affiliating with Starbucks Workers United, part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). In Wisconsin, workers have voted for union representation at Starbucks locations in Oak Creek, Madison, Appleton and Plover.

Employees at a West Allis Starbucks signed cards to support the union and petitioned for a representation election in June. That petition has since been withdrawn, however, while the National Labor Relations Board’s regional office in Minneapolis has issued a complaint against the company. If the complaint isn’t settled, it would be the subject of a hearing that could lead to penalties against the company.

In addition to those six sites, a different union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, petitioned to represent Starbucks employees at three other locations, in Monona, Fitchburg and another Madison site. An election for the Fitchburg employees ended with a vote of 21-1 against union representation, according to the NLRB. The UFCW withdrew its petitions for the Monona and Madison cafés. The Madison location, however, is now also the subject of a pending NLRB complaint against the company.

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