Unionized Starbucks stores face hard work of bargaining

It’s a painstaking process that can take years.“The meat is at the bargaining table,” said AJ Jones, Starbucks’ senior vice president of global communications and a former consultant to companies during labor negotiations.At least 85 of Starbucks' 9,000 company-run U.S. stores — representing 7,444 workers — have voted to unionize since December, according to the National Labor Relations Board, and at least 10 stores have rejected the union. If we have our contract, they can’t take those things away.”Even when workers do successfully organize, there’s no guarantee it will stick, as evidenced in 1987 when Starbucks employees voted to decertify the union that represented a handful of Seattle stores just two years after voting it in.But this time, Starbucks labor organizers say they’re determined to see the process through.Jaz Brisack, a Starbucks employee and labor organizer who is at the bargaining table in Buffalo, said more stores around the country would like to begin negotiating, but the company has been slow to start.