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The coffee shop, located at 6 North Main St. (Route 1), has officially submitted a petition to unionize with Starbucks Workers United to the National Labor Relations Board, according to an announcement by Starbucks Workers United from Tuesday, Feb. 21.
The Branford location is the third store in the state to unionize, following Starbucks stores in both West Hartford and Vernon. The three locations join almost 300 stores and 7,000 baristas across the country that have unionized with the organization.
Employees of the Branford location wrote to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz explaining their decision.
"We find policies implemented within the past five years to be detrimental to our goal at Starbucks," employees said in the letter, adding that "hours have been drastically cut without notice."
"Unpredictable changes in our income have been severely detrimental to our mental and financial wellbeing," the employees continued.
Employee Joann Lehr said that she hopes unionizing will allow her fellow employees to have a louder voice when dealing with the company.
"Starbucks likes to tell its partners that it’s listening to us, but we don’t often see that when it comes time to hand down decisions that directly affect stores and partners," Lehr said.
The Branford coffee shop is not alone in this sentiment, as more new unions have formed in 12 months with Starbucks Workers United than any companies in the US for 20 years, according to the organization.
The unionization efforts come in the wake of 65 official complaints that have been levied against Starbucks by the National Labor Relations Board, which encompass over 1,300 violations.
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