A second Alamo City Starbucks store has declared its intent to organize, becoming the coffee chain’s third Texas location seeking union representation.
The Starbucks Workers United union announced the move by workers at downtown San Antonio’s 200 E. Houston St. store in a Tuesday tweet. In February, staff at the Loop 410 and Vance Jackson Road Starbucks became the first Texas store to join the organizing push sweeping outlets nationwide.
In a letter to company CEO Kevin Johnson, workers at the downtown store, located between the Majestic and Empire theaters, said their local manager is supportive “to the best of his ability.” However, they added that the company itself has largely ignored their concerns.
“Time and time again, we find that corporate is out of touch with what we partners, the heart of the Starbucks experience, need to simply survive and succeed, let alone be inspired and nurtured,” states the letter signed by 10 workers and their “anonymous partners.”
Starbucks opposes unionization efforts, even as the nationwide organizing effort continues to pick up steam. Company officials said the chain’s pay and benefits already exceed the industry norm.
The National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against Starbucks Tuesday over allegations that it retaliated against a pair of workers trying to organize an Arizona store. It’s the first NLRB complaint lodged during the unionization push.
The letter from the downtown San Antonio Starbucks brings the number of outlets seeking labor representation to 140, spread across 27 states, according to the union.
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This article appears in Mar 9-22, 2022.