Starbucks wants to begin contract negotiations next month at hundreds of U.S. stores that have voted to unionize.
The Seattle coffee giant sent letters to 234 stores offering a three-week window in October to start negotiations. All of the stores in 36 states and the District of Columbia voted to unionize this year in elections that were certified by the National Labor Relations Board.
The company said in a post on its website that they look forward to these negotiations and hopefully set dates and secure locations for contract bargaining.
The union organizing Starbucks stores expressed skepticism about the request of the company. Starbucks opposes the unionization of its 9,000 company-owned U.S. stores. The National Labor Relations Board was asked by the company last month to temporarily halt all elections because of evidence of misconduct.
The unionization effort began last year at a Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York. The store and two others - one in New York and one in Arizona - are the only ones currently negotiating contracts.
Casey Moore, a labor organizer and union spokeswoman, said other stores have reached out to Starbucks to begin negotiations since May, but have not received a response. Starbucks said Workers United has directed the company to schedule all of its negotiations through the union's president.
Moore said the union is working on core proposals on economic and non-economic issues to guide bargaining at individual stores. A national bargaining committee, made of representatives from unionized stores, has been meeting weekly to discuss the proposals, Moore said.