Starbucks has signed union contracts almost nowhere, but in Chile, workers have a national agreement covering 176 stores. They were the first in the world to unionize, in 2009.
In the United States, workers at 550 stores finally brought Starbucks to the bargaining table in 2024 and in November last year they began a boycott and strike, in which more than fifty stores are now holding out, and some are walking out in short strikes, like seven stores that struck in Minneapolis for the ICE Out day January 23. Now 666 US stores are unionized, but they still don’t have a contract.
Asked the secret of the Chilean union’s unique success, past president Andres Giordano said, “This is not something that could be done in one or two years.” It took from 2009 to 2022 for the union to achieve a real contract. They did it through many ups and downs and without any full-time paid leaders.
Giordano started working at Starbucks while a student activist, in 2007, knowing nothing of unions. In 2009, he and others began the process to form a union, with only sixteen of 2,500 workers officially on board. They recruited quickly, and Starbucks was obliged by Chilean law to negotiate — but “I imagine they imported their manual from the US,” Giordano said, and management refused to bargain in any way. Between 2009 and 2012, Starbucks broke every single labor law, spelling out its illegal policies in internal documents. It is the most fined company in Chile, Giordano said.
Meanwhile, workers were hurt by the 2009 financial crisis, with some stores closed down and heavy layoffs. Remaining workers were expected to work harder. Starbucks refused to give the usual annual cost-of-living raise that unionized workers expected. And in Giordano’s store in Santiago, rats were a big motivator. “We were required to clean up dead rats,” he said.
In 2011, a minority of workers struck, for thirty days. Union leaders held a noisy hunger strike for twelve days in front of Starbucks…
Auteur: Jane Slaughter
