Kat Flores has a long history with unions. Her grandparents, parents and siblings have all been a part of one, making joining a union a family affair and something that the Starbucks barista is very passionate about.
On Tuesday, Flores continued her family’s tradition.
Flores and her fellow Starbucks employees in Pekin voted to unionize this week, joining a national effort among the coffee chain’s employees in requesting better wages, fairer scheduling and safer working conditions. In a 14-2 decision, the store on Court Street became the 24th Starbucks in Illinois and the second in the area to successfully unionize, joining the store on the corner of University and Main Street in Peoria’s Campustown Shopping Center.
The group now becomes a part of Starbucks Workers United, a national labor union that includes over 425 locations across the U.S. since the stores began unionizing three years ago. Through worker-led peer-to-peer organizing, the organization has assisted 10,000 workers at Starbucks spanning 43 states and the District of Columbia, becoming the most-unionized company of the 21st Century.
As one of the five core employees who got the ball rolling in Pekin, and as the one who took charge of communicating during the process, Flores had a heavy hand in making this happen.
“We figured this was the best way to make the company listen to us and to get our voice out there and be heard,” Flores said.
The main thing Flores said they want is a safer work environment. She sad some employees have gotten hurt on the job, maintenance tickets are not being fulfilled quick enough and some customers are even stalking and harassing employees. She said bringing these issues to Starbucks corporate was not easy, as there was no way to clearly communicate with the higher-ups with store managers being changed out frequently.
When the Campustown store successfully unionized in April of 2022, the Pekin employees toyed with the idea of following their lead but had too much staff turnover to gain any momentum. Once the turnover slowed, they discussed it again at the beginning of December last year, contacting Starbucks Workers United – who they’d seen a lot on social media – to get in touch with other stores.
On March 20, they officially petitioned for union membership, and on Tuesday it became official.
“I hope it’ll help us foster a better relationship with corporate, because this is gonna give us a more open communication line, and hopefully we’ll be able to make stores safer but also help with inclusivity and making sure everyone’s voices are heard and everyone feels welcome and supported,” Flores said.
Flores took on her role coordinating the union efforts because of her background with unions and her seniority at the store. She’s the longest-tenured employee and one of the oldest, so she said she knew she had to step up.
“I’ve seen the way that it has been able to benefit not only employees but also a company to have that sort of middle man to protect the workers,” Flores said.
“I felt like I had more experience with the company to be able to properly represent the issues that we’ve been having,” Flores added.
Instead of finding a different job, Flores decided to stick around at the store to try and make it better for everyone that currently works there and everyone who will come after she leaves.
“You can’t just quit things when it gets hard,” Flores said. “If I just gave up and left, things would only get worse for whoever came behind me, and this way it opens up to make it a better company and make it better not just for our store, but for all the stores in the country.”
Flores says seeing the success of other unionized stores definitely helped motivate her and her location during the process, especially since she knows the difficult path unions have faced throughout their history.
“It was really encouraging to see that other people have been able to do it so far,” Flores said. “Being able to see other people’s success stories and hear about the different things that they had to go through and then seeing the benefits that they’ve received so far, it just made it seem worth it.”
Next, the Pekin store must elect a union representative to participate in negotiations between Starbucks Workers United and Starbucks corporate, a discussion that just heated up again following a nearly year-long standoff. If the two sides can come to terms, a contract is signed.
But the road there isn’t so simple. Starbucks' alleged interference with unionization efforts will be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court, and not every store is following Pekin’s lead. Workers at Peoria's Pioneer Parkway Starbucks rejected the union.
Still, Flores doesn’t want people to give up hope. She's encouraging other stores to take the plunge to try and make their workplaces better.
“Don’t be afraid to do this,” Flores said. “We weren’t the first people to do this and we won’t be the last. This is the step that’s necessary to build these better relationships with the company and make everything better.”
