Starbucks announces higher pay, but union workers will have to bargain for it | CNN Business
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Starbucks employees are getting new benefits, but not all of them apply to unionized workers — at least not without collective bargaining.

Starbucks employees are getting more pay and new benefits, but some are only going to baristas that haven’t unionized. A National Labor Relations Board judge previously found that similar moves by Starbucks violate federal labor law, with the company appealing the decision.

The question of which workers get what perks and benefits has been one part of a bitter fight between Starbucks and union organizers across the country. Since the first location voted to unionize nearly two years ago, Starbucks has fought aggressively against the union drive. The NLRB has said that in some cases, the company engaged in illegal practices, with Starbucks refuting these claims.

As of mid-October, nearly 360 stores had voted in favor of a union, with the results certified by the NLRB. About 70 voted against, with those results certified. There are roughly 9,300 company-operated Starbucks locations in the United States.

    • Nougat
      2•1 year ago

      Really? I never knew that. With that in mind, I now understand why the People of the North loved Tim Horton’s so much, and have vocally lamented its decline in quality.

      Edit: Seems like the reason I didn’t know that is because it’s not true.

      Mother Parkers [which is a privately held family company] is the supplier of coffee to McDonald’s Canada. Tim Hortons used to use this supplier prior to constructing its own roasting facility [in April, 2009]. McDonald’s has had a coffee supply agreement with Gavia Gourmet Coffee since 1983.

      • @[email protected]
        3•1 year ago

        It’s farther up in the chain. They got the better beans. I watched some food documentary on it years ago, so I can’t give better details. What I recall is TH got the old board swap. New team wants to increase profits, so they look for cheaper beans. McD steps in via their supply chain and pays the farmers more so wins the long term contract on the beans that were going to TH. TH got their cheap beans they wanted from some other source. McD got the higher quality beans that used to go to the TH supply chain.

        • Nougat
          -4•1 year ago

          None of that is what you originally said. McDonald’s did not “[buy] out the old Tim Horton supplier.”

          McDonald’s doesn’t roast its own coffee beans, either, the supplier does - which means that McDonald’s doesn’t pay the farmers anything. Maybe the supplier got the beans, but even so, the roasting process is different, the brewing process is different, the grinding process is probably different. Not the same coffee.

          In one of the links above, it’s stated that McDonald’s Canada gets its already roasted beans from Mother Parkers (where TH got their beans prior to 2009). Many other places report that McDonald’s gets its coffee from Gaviña.