Workers at a third Tampa Starbucks file petition to unionize

As thousands of Starbucks baristas walked off the job this week, in protest of a new dress code policy and alleged violations of labor law, the Starbucks union movement in Tampa is seeing new signs of growth.

Starbucks workers at the Shoppes of Carrollwood location in Tampa this week officially filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking a union election for 16 of the cafe’s employees.

More than 570 Starbucks locations across the U.S. have unionized with the labor union Starbucks Workers United since the organizing drive launched in 2021, including a dozen locations in Florida. Three of those unionized locations are in the Tampa Bay region, including two cafes in Tampa and one in Clearwater.

“I have been employed with Starbucks for over three years and in that time corporate has prioritized anything other than its partners. We have been left with unfulfilled promises and a lack of hours and as a result many baristas are left stressed and overwhelmed,” said Jackie Montalvo, a barista at the union-ready Carrollwood Starbucks location, just two miles away from another unionized location.

“Partners who need this job for health insurance and other benefits are not given the hours needed in order to be given access to those said benefits. This company can definitely afford to give us consistent hours that result in a livable wage, they just choose not to.”

Starbucks Workers United, representing more than 11,000 baristas and shift supervisors nationwide, is currently in negotiations with Starbucks for a first union contract. The popular Seattle-based coffee chain—a multi-billion dollar company—hasn’t met the union with welcome arms. It stalled contract talks with the union for years (a common tactic of anti-union employers) before agreeing to bargain with the union in good faith just last February.

The union is fighting for higher pay, solutions to short-staffing, and improvements to disciplinary procedures, nondiscrimination policies, and job benefits like healthcare. Although the union and Starbucks have reached tentative agreements on over a dozen non-economic proposals in the bargaining process, economic proposals such as pay have remained a sticking point.

A majority of unionized baristas who serve as delegates for the union recently rejected the company’s latest proposal offering no immediate pay raises, improvements to health benefits, nor a minimum number of scheduled hours. And just this week, workers at a number of unionized cafes—representing at least 2,000 workers in total—walked off the job over the company’s unilateral decision to change employees’ dress code policy.

Starbucks Workers United argues that broad policy changes should be bargained with the union, and not changed unilaterally by the employer. The union has also blasted the company for policing what workers wear rather than addressing other workplace conditions that affect the customer experience.

“Why should the focus be on us paying out-of-pocket for new shoes, pants, and shirts when Starbucks could be focusing on staffing their stores correctly, lowering wait times, and paying baristas a living wage? Our union is strong and we’re flexing our power by taking action this week – and reminding Starbucks that they have a legal obligation to bargain with us over ANY policy changes,” the union wrote in a social media post.

A Starbucks spokesperson told Orlando Weekly this week (after baristas walked off the job at a unionized cafe near Orlando) that Starbucks “will continue to bargain in good faith and will make sure any differences between our negotiations and store implementations are addressed lawfully and fairly.”

The company spokesperson criticized the union for what they described as an effort “to create disruption in a handful of stores.”

“It would be more productive if the union would put the same effort into coming back to the table to finalize a reasonable contract,” they shared.

Starbucks has been hit with hundreds of complaints of unfair labor practice allegations over the course of the national organizing campaign, some of which have been upheld while others await final review. Complaints including unlawful firings of workers, illegally withholding benefits from unionized workers, and even shuttering stores where workers vote to form a union. The union has filed more than 90 unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks since the beginning of the year, after they say Starbucks backtracked on its “path forward” with the union.

Despite challenges in reaching an agreement—and legally-questionable actions by the coffee chain along the way—the Starbucks union has continued to grow, with the store in Tampa joining at least two other U.S. Starbucks locations this week that have filed petitions to join the fight.

To file for an election, at least 30% of workers must sign cards in support of unionization, although unions generally shoot for closer to 60% in case some workers change their mind, or encounter union busters. A simple majority of workers must then vote in favor of unionization for the union to prevail.

In Florida, just about 5% of workers are represented by a union, compared to just under 10% nationwide. Union density—or the share of workers represented by a union—is particularly low in the retail and food service sectors, with common barriers to unionization including high turnover and unstable hours. Starbucks Workers United, a grassroots campaign of the labor union Workers United, secured its very first union election victory in Buffalo, New York in 2021. The organizing movement, led by a scrappy group of baristas, spread like wildfire.

“I’m voting to unionize because we all deserve fair hours, wages, and a work environment that is not falling apart with equipment that actually properly works,” said Stephanie Short, a shift supervisor of six years at the Carrollwood location. “We have received empty promises of more hours and staffing, and then instead it feels like the hours have lessened, partners that have left are not being replaced at the same pace they leave, and the work load seems to be ever increasing on each individual.”

The expectations for baristas, she said, “are no longer realistic,” even for the most tenured employees that have been with the company through its ups and downs. “It is time for Starbucks to step up,” said Short.

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This article appears in May 15-21, 2025.