TOLEDO, Ohio — The Westgate Starbucks is one of 18 locations across the country that officially filed an application Wednesday to unionize.
"This company is finally being forced to hear us," said Brittney Berning, an employee at the store on West Central Avenue near Secor Road.
Westgate filed its petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board.
Workers shared concerns about wages, scheduling and respect, aspects of the job that workers say are currently not fair.
"We just never really get enough to cover the cost of basic necessities and everything," said Adrienne Siefert, another employee.
The Associated Press reported in November of 2023 that Starbucks was increasing 2024 wages nationwide by 3%. The same report shared that employees make an average wage of nearly $17.50 per hour. Baristas earn between $15 to $24 an hour.
"These are multi-billion dollar corporations and there's no ethical excuse for people struggling," Berning said.
In order to unionize, Starbucks Workers United shared that one of two things needs to happen:
- An employer may voluntarily recognize the union at the request of a majority of the workforce without a vote.
- Employees may trigger an election through sufficient signing of union authorization cards.
The minimum needed to have an election is 30% of bargaining staff signing cards. To win the election, a simple majority is needed.
"I think that it's definitely becoming a lot more normalized for people to stand up to employers and come together to actually have a voice," Siefert said.
Starbucks provided WTOL 11 with the following statement regarding Westgate's announcement:
“At Starbucks we believe that our direct relationship as partners is core to the experiences we create in our stores, and we respect our partners rights to have a choice on the topic of unions. We are committed to delivering on our promise to offer a bridge to a better future to all Starbucks partners."
Westgate's staff of approximately 20 workers is pushing ahead and telling others to do the same.
"I definitely encourage every worker amongst every industry, not just Starbucks, to come together and form a community within each other because we're going to keep struggling unless we actually do something about it," Berning said.