Starbucks’ workers at Miami Springs store are first in South Florida to join union
The Starbucks in Miami Springs has become the first South Florida store, and fourth statewide, in the national chain to have its workers form a union.
After a 10-3 vote Tuesday, Starbucks employees at the 52 Curtiss Parkway location made the union organization effort official and joined Starbucks Workers United.
The Starbucks union drive in Florida is part of a trend sweeping across the country at the popular coffee retailer. At least 60 Starbucks stores have approved unions, while employees have voted to reject union representation at eight other locations.
On April 22, workers at a Hialeah Starbucks, 583 W. 49th St., voted 14-12 against forming a union.
“We are looking forward to fighting for a contract that meets the needs of all our co-workers,” said Christian Miranda, union leader at the Miami Springs coffee shop.
A Starbucks spokesperson told el Nuevo Herald before the election the company would respect the results of the voting tally.
Workers’ demands
Miranda, 19, took the reins of the movement to try to improve the conditions of his co-workers, who he said are “stressed and overworked despite the fact that we love our work. Because we love it, we are fighting to change things.”
His main goal is to increase the wages of the baristas from $12 to $17 an hour.
There was no celebration after Tuesday’s results were final, Miranda said, out of respect for colleagues in Hialeah where the union organizing effort failed last month.
The National Labor Relations Board conducted the Miami Springs’ employees union vote by mail rather than in person. Days before workers there started receiving ballots on April 13, employees and their allies demonstrated outside the Curtiss Parkway coffee shop, claiming they were being intimidated by the company.
Organized Starbucks stores in Florida
Starbucks store workers at 11441 San Jose Blvd. in Jacksonville voted 10-7 on May 10 to join the union.
On the same day, employees at the San Marco store in Jacksonville approved unionization by an 8-1 vote.
On May 3, a Starbucks coffee shop in Tallahassee became the first union store in Florida after a 16-1 vote to organize a bargaining unit for employees there.
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 12:47 PM.
