Another Long Island Starbucks files a petition to unionize

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Workers at the Starbucks store in Port Jefferson are the latest of the chain’s Long Island employees to start the process to unionize. 

The Port Jefferson Starbucks workers were joined by workers at a Starbucks in downtown Brooklyn in filing petitions with the National Labor Relations Board Monday to unionize with Starbucks Workers United. 

The filings come on the heels of a first week of bargaining between the company and the union, according to a union statement. 

The Port Jefferson Starbucks employees issued the following statement: “Unionization could offer a platform for fostering open dialogue, ensuring fair treatment, and collaboratively addressing issues that affect employees. Partners are used as advertisement pieces, although that is not how we’re treated in reality. Our hours are constantly cut, in spite of up selling our products and periods of high sales volume. This is why we want to organize.”  

Olivia Donnelly, who works at the Starbucks in Port Jefferson, said: “I believe a union will provide feelings of security and safety for partners. It will allow partners’ voices to be heard and have their issues resolved.” 

Five weeks ago, employees at the Starbucks in Garden City and the Village of Westbury elected to join Starbucks Workers United. 

At the time, Starbucks spokesperson Rachel Wall said in an emailed statement that the company is committed to delivering on its promise to offer a bridge to a better future to all Starbucks partners.  

“On February 27, the company and Workers United agreed to begin discussions on a foundational framework designed to help achieve ratified bargaining agreements, resolve certain litigation and address other issues,” Wall said in the statement. “We are eager to reach ratified agreements in 2024 for stores that have already voted for union representation. We respect the rights of our partners to organize and bargain collectively, and we are eager to reach ratified agreements in 2024 for represented stores.” 

Since the union movement for Starbucks workers began with a successful vote at a store in Buffalo in Dec. 2021, there are now more than 10,000 union Starbucks workers in more than 415 union stores in 43 states and Washington D.C.   

The Starbucks union is an affiliate of Philadelphia-based Workers United.