Mass Ave Starbucks first in Indianapolis to unionize

Mass Ave Starbucks (Google Maps)

Workers at the Starbucks store in Mass Ave voted in favor of becoming part of a labor union Wednesday, making the location the first in Indianapolis to do so.

Baristas at the store at 430 Massachusetts Ave. join a relatively small but growing contingent of Starbucks employees that are part of Starbucks Workers United, the national union. It includes an estimated 10,500 workers across 460 stores.

Jensen Williams, an Indiana University Indianapolis student who works night shifts and closes the store, told IBJ that being able to bargain for better wages, more consistent hours and additional safety measures was important.

Ultimately, Williams was among 13 employees who voted in favor of unionizing, while three voted against it. There were 20 employees eligible for the vote, which excluded those in management positions.

“I think everybody just felt comfortable taking the plunge into moving through the unionizing process,” Williams told IBJ. “Socially in the store, talking about it amongst each other, it was always a very positive topic.”

Workers at the store filed a petition of intent to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board on July 2. Next, they will elect a store advocate who will lead communications with union representatives. 

Indiana has seven other unionized Starbucks stores: two in Bloomington, two in Plainfield, one in Clarksville and one in Valparaiso.

Williams said employees at the Mass Ave store are part of a tight-knit group who feel a part of the neighborhood, particularly because the store doesn’t have a drive-thru and baristas have close interactions with customers daily.

“I think having that community backing us is what really supported us to be able to make this decision,” Williams said.

The Indianapolis location and the eight other organizing stores sent a public letter to Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan earlier this month. The workers expressed concerns regarding available hours and staffing shortages that result in high turnover and burnout. Starbucks commonly refers to workers as “partners.”

In response to IBJ’s request for comment on the Indianapolis unionization effort earlier this month, Starbucks said in a statement that “we believe 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,” the statement continued.

In late April, Starbucks and the union jointly announced that they had made significant progress at the bargaining table. The parties met at a subsequent bargaining meeting in June, in which Workers United said the parties “advanced non-economic measures” for what will eventually be the framework of each single-store contract.

Starbucks has more than 17,000 coffee shops in the United States and 38,000 worldwide, employing 346,000 workers.