Starbucks at Fortress Boulevard in Murfreesboro
Workers at a Starbucks in Murfreesboro have voted against forming a union. The coffee shop on Fortress Boulevard was the latest location of the worldwide chain to undergo a unionizing effort.
Federal officials tallied the vote Friday, with 16 workers voting against organizing and 12 voting for the union. One additional ballot was challenged. Employees at the Murfreesboro location initially filed paperwork seeking a union election in March.
“Over the last year, really within the last several months, we've noticed a culture change at Starbucks, at least specifically our location,” Laci Cote, one of the local organizers, told the Scene earlier this year. “Our partners are being overworked, undertrained, underpaid; we're not being supported by upper management — a lot of things that make our work environment a pretty negative one that we know Starbucks can do better at. That’s what this is really about: challenging Starbucks to do better, to live up to their own standards when it comes to the way they treat their employees.”
More than 100 Starbucks locations around the U.S. have initiated labor organizing efforts since late last year. The company has responded aggressively, including by firing Memphis employees who participated in news interviews at the store.
"Due to Starbucks' intense and aggressive union-busting, this was not a fair election and the workers have not given up their fight for the right to organize," a Starbucks Workers United representative tells the Scene.
A spokesperson for Starbucks previously told the Scene, “We are listening and learning from partners in the stores as we always do,” adding that the company believes its relationship with its employees is better without a union. “Our success is built on how we partner together always.”
