In Salem Starbucks circles, the store at Southeast Commercial Street and Oakhill Avenue is nicknamed “Broke Hill.”
Equipment frequently breaking down is one issue that’s made work difficult for the store’s employees in recent years, said shift manager McKenna Peters.
“It’s one of those things where we can laugh about it, but if we hear someone else say it we’re like, ‘Hold on,’” she said of the moniker.
Peters, 25, said she hopes their shortage of machinery and staff, as well as low pay, will soon improve now that their store is the first in Salem to unionize.
Workers voted overwhelmingly in favor of unionization in an Aug. 9 National Labor Relations Board election. Among 25 employees, 13 voted in favor and two voted against, while 10 did not submit a ballot.
As of Friday, there were 194 unionized Starbucks stores cross the U.S. according to data tracking elections held by the board since 2008.
One employee attended the election in person and streamed the vote counts on a Discord call for other employees to watch.
“Every time we saw the person’s signature on it we’d be cheering,” Peters said. “We were kind of all stunned into silence, because we kind of knew that we were all feeling pretty confident about it, but it was so shocking to see such a big turnout of votes in general and then so many yeses.”
Ashley Gregory, a barista at the Salem store, said the call was tense for the workers watching, knowing the outcome of the vote could alter their work environment.
“You could hear the anxiety in everyone’s voice, and it was just a moment of relief when they counted and said that we had passed,” Gregory said. “It was a very crazy, overwhelming feeling.”
Peters, who has been at the store for four years, said Starbucks workers earn a less-than-liveable wage. Amid the pandemic and rising inflation, she said the store has only gotten busier.
“These are long-term effects that we’re just kind of being left behind on,” she said. “Starbucks is not keeping up with this constant demand.”
She also said the store is allowed to assign a certain number of work hours per employee for the day or week. “It never seems to be enough, so we’re always feeling very short-staffed. And then if someone calls in, then it’s like everyone is doing the work of like two people,” she said.
A small group of about five workers took the reins on the unionization effort, but Peters said their goal is to ensure all of the store’s employees have their voices heard.
“Even the ones who voted no,” she said. “I want to make sure that everyone gets a say, and right now between here and the bargaining for a contract, I want to get as much input as I can for that.”
A Starbucks spokesperson responding to the letter told Salem Reporter May 31 that they are “listening and learning” from the employees.
“We’ve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed,” they said in an email.
In a follow-up email on June 1 ahead of the vote, they said, “This vote won’t change our shared purpose or how we show up for each other.”
The company did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Workers at the Salem store will join SB Workers United, a union that represented 150 to 200 Starbucks workers in the state as of May 31.
Peters recalled someone representing the union pointing out that their store would be the first Starbucks in a capital city to unionize. Thinking of the attention that might draw terrified her at first, she said, but she now hopes they can inspire workers at other Starbucks in Salem and elsewhere to collectively bargain.
Gregory, 21, said a better work environment for her would be the store’s workers being appreciated for what they do, and not going to work feeling dread and leaving with urgency.
“I think that being like a barista is very looked down upon because it’s seen as a stepping stone kind of job, like, it’s something that you do if you’re in college, or it’s something that you do as a part-time job,” she said. “But some people actually enjoy it and use it as a full-time job and take care of their family with it, and so I want people to realize that that’s okay and I want to be treated like more than just a barista.”
Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.
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Ardeshir Tabrizian has covered criminal justice and housing for Salem Reporter since September 2021. As an Oregon native, his award-winning watchdog journalism has traversed the state. He has done reporting for The Oregonian, Eugene Weekly and Malheur Enterprise.
