Starbucks 36th & N. May open after labor negotiations, remodeling

Union and store management come to agreeable terms

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OKLAHOMA CITY — The Starbucks crew at NW 36th and May in OKC successfully bargained for protections from the effects of a recent renovation. They received nearly all of what they’ve asked for.

The results of the negotiations were:

  • Every worker was ensured a store to work in during the closure
  • Five days for Starbucks to process a transfer request
  • Reimbursed mileage from travel to their temporary store
  • Maintaining average work hours during the renovation
  • Equivalent hours at temporary store that they received at 36th and May
  • Sick time honored at temporary store
  • Previous vacation requests before renovations honored
  • Reserved right for union to request additional bargaining if reopening date changes
  • Once renovation was completed, partners returned to 36th and May

Negotiations

One item that Starbucks did not give back to the baristas is lost tips. The corporation’s argument was that tips aren’t supposed to be provided by Starbucks, and are funded by customers.

Free Press reached out to Neha Cremin, barista at 36th and May Starbucks, for comment.

When asked about what the workers were looking for, Cremin said, “During negotiations, what we were looking for was we wanted to make sure everyone had a store they could work at that was convenient for them.”

She continued, “We wanted to make sure we were reimbursed for mileage from when we travel.”

In regards to the lost tips, she said, “It’s just kind of frustrating. Most of us were being split between two stores [ 23rd and Robinson, OKC, 63rd and Grand, Nichols Hills ].” What this did was add 10-12 workers to a store’s schedule. This dilutes the tip pool and costs workers money, which makes the costly drive to work that much more difficult.

Starbucks
Barista Mikael G. visits with a customer at the NW 36th and May Starbucks happy to see them back open again on Black Friday, Nov. 25, 2022. (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

According to Cremin, the union tried multiple strategies in an attempt to get Starbucks to help out with the lost tips, but they ultimately never budged on the issue.

She told Free Press, “While the company wasn’t responsible for the tips we get, they were responsible for drastically changing our working conditions so that we couldn’t get the tips we usually do.”

Cremin said the union proposed these three things to secure lost tips:

  • Remove the temporary store’s tip pool and being provided an additional $1 extra raise instead
  • Pay the tip average of the last 3 months
  • Increase the mileage rate they get for travel to compensate

The corporation even suggested that customers from their store would follow them to their temporary store, with no real evidence to back it up.

But despite losing on this point, Cremin feels like the negotiations were a success. 

“Ultimately, we were happy to get everything else we had asked for. Sure, we had to concede on one point in order to get the remodel our store needed, but everything else ended up working out in our favor.”

Power imbalance

Negotiating with a multinational corporation isn’t easy. 

The workers at 36th and May realized this very quickly. There was a clear power imbalance in the room, said Cremin. While there were numerous highly-paid corporate lawyers on Starbucks’ side, the union was operating on their own time and effort.

She said, “Because of how often they rescheduled the meeting, you didn’t have enough time in advance to request time off, so I had to lose a shift. I work between 20 and 30 hours a week, which is like 25% of what I work in a week.”

Also, while Starbucks had a team of lawyers doing their bidding, the workers only had one union lawyer. “We had a lawyer who was supporting us from the union who was very helpful. But again, seeing Starbucks with all their lawyers, all these different corporate people showing up over zoom, there was definitely a sense of we were the underdog there.”

The 36th and May Starbucks in Oklahoma City is the second Starbucks to vote for unionization in the state of Oklahoma. The store closed on September 26th for renovations, and opened back up October 27th.

Starbucks has recently been a hotbed of unionization efforts across the country. 

According to Collin Pollitt, barista at 23rd and Robinson, recent activity has been their #RedCupRebellion campaign which organized strikes in over 115 stores nationwide for Starbucks stores not negotiating in good-faith in contract bargaining.


Author Profile

Alex Gatley covers labor activities in the state of Oklahoma.