Full and part-time baristas and shift supervisors at Starbucks’ location at 931 Middle Road, Bettendorf, are seeking an election that would enable them to join the Starbucks Worker United (SBWU) union.
If the Monday, Jan. 27, National Labor Relations Board filing is approved by the NLRB, and a subsequent employee election is successful, SBWU said in a news release that Bettendorf employees and the union could work together to win workplace protections on such issues as wages, respect, racial and gender equity, and fair scheduling.
The union seeks to cover 24 workers at the Seattle-based coffee chain‘s Bettendorf site, according to the NLRB petition, which also sets a potential union vote for Monday, Feb. 10, at the Bettendorf store’s cafe. Excluded from such a vote would be store managers, assistant managers, office clericals, guards, professionals and supervisors.
SBWU growing fast
The SBWU is a fast-growing union of 11,000 baristas at more than 540 Starbucks stores in 45 states and the District of Columbia, its release said. Based in Buffalo, New York, it was started in August 2021 by partners from different stores in that city who worked together to advocate for changes in their workplaces. They filed petitions to unionize and started SBWU, which is affiliated with Workers United.
The Bettendorf Starbucks staff’s petition was filed by the Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board, Workers United/SEIU.
If the eligible Bettendorf employees vote to join the union, the Middle Road Starbucks will be just the third Iowa Starbucks to be unionized. Workers at Starbucks in Iowa City had voted unanimously to establish a union in May of 2023. The Davenport location at 3120 East 53rd St. was the second.
On Christmas Eve in 2024, some Davenport Starbucks workers joined the picket lines for a day in solidarity with SBWU’s national “Strike Before Christmas” organized across the country to protest what workers and the union aid were unfair labor practices.
