Unionization among Canadian Starbucks employees is starting to gain traction, organizers say, but much like their U.S. counterparts, workers face barriers and alleged anti-union activity by the coffee giant.
More than a year before the recent wave of Starbucks unionization in the U.S. began, a store in Victoria unionized with the United Steelworkers in August 2020 — and workers across the country took note.
“I think the pandemic has caused people to look at their lives, their work, their community in a bit of a different way,” said Scott Lunny, USW’s director for Western Canada.
Since late last year, more than 250 stores south of the border have voted to unionize, according to the U.S. National Labor Relations Board.
But a successful certification vote is just one step in unionizing; workers don’t start paying dues until a contract has been negotiated. And though contract talks with some U.S. stores have begun, no agreements have been reached, The Associated Press has reported.
That makes the Victoria store the only location in North America to have a collective agreement with the company.
In some cases, stores in the same geographical area could organize in clusters as one bargaining unit, said Lunny. That’s what happened for two stores in Surrey and Langley, B.C., which successfully certified as one bargaining unit. In Lethbridge, Alta., five stores held an unsuccessful certification vote.
Demonstrators protest outside a closed Starbucks location in Seattle this summer. Hundreds of the coffee chain’s locations in the U.S. have faced union drives in recent months. (David Ryder/Bloomberg)
Lunny said service workers broadly have become interested in unionization over the pandemic and especially in recent months amid higher inflation.
In deciding to unionize, the Victoria workers wanted more support regarding harassment by customers and clearer communication about COVID-19 practices, said shift supervisor and union representative Sarah Broad.
Broad said she’s noticed a big difference since the contract was ratified, with “tenfold” improvements in health and safety. The workers also got wage increases.
But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. Earlier this year, Starbucks said it would give workers across Canada and other jurisdictions raises and other improvements. However, Broad said a letter was posted in the back room of the Victoria store explaining they wouldn’t be getting the raise because of the union contract.
Starbucks spokeswoman Carly Suppa said in an email this is because the Victoria store’s contract includes annual wage increases.
USW filed a labour complaint on behalf of the Victoria store. It’s one of several labour complaints filed by the union on behalf of Starbucks stores, said Lunny, one of which — accusing the company of disciplining a union organizer in Lethbridge — is still active.
Starbucks workers at a location in Buffalo react as the vote tallies are announced in the location’s vote to unionize. (Joshua Bessex/The Associated Press)
Workers in the U.S. have also been facing alleged anti-union activity, with the labour relations board asking a federal court to intervene in instances where Starbucks fired union organizers.
Suppa said Starbucks has never disciplined an employee for engaging in lawful union activity in the U.S. or Canada.
The raise announced in May was also implemented in the U.S., except for those who voted to unionize or petitioned to hold a union election, The Associated Press reported in May.
In a statement posted to one.starbucks.com, a Starbucks website launched in February, the company said U.S. labour law restricts the improvements it can make to wages and benefits during the unionization process and when a store has unionized, but said the recent improvements will likely be negotiated at the bargaining table.
Unionizing efforts come to Starbucks, food service workers
Starbucks is the latest major food service company to see unionizing efforts spread across Canada recently.
York University labour law professor David J. Doorey said while Starbucks’ position has some legal basis under U.S. labour law, it’s also possible the labour board will see the company’s actions as unlawful reprisal for unionizing.
USW’s Lunny said he believes Starbucks always had the capacity to pay higher wages and invest more in health and safety, but “they really didn’t get around to it until there was a threat of unionization.”
“I do think (the raises are) about preventing unionization.”
Suppa said the company continues to invest in wages, benefits, policies, safety and training, and said Starbucks believes it can do more for its employees by working side-by-side instead of across a negotiating table.
On the Canadian version of its informational website, launched in July, the company urges workers to do research before signing a union card and says that if certified, workers will no longer be able to address their concerns with the company directly.
Starbucks workers in Central Canada are also interested in unionization but high turnover has been a barrier to successful drives, said Darlene Jalbert, the organizing co-ordinator for Ontario and Atlantic Canada.
It’s easier to certify in B.C. and some other jurisdictions, said economist and labour expert Jim Stanford, because they have “one-step” certification where a certain majority of signatures counts as certification.
In Alberta and Ontario, signatures are just a first step — the vote to certify can happen days, weeks or even months later, he said.
Sector is notoriously hard to unionize
Starbucks is a mix of corporate-run locations and licensed locations, such as the ones in grocery stores. There are almost 1,000 corporate locations in Canada and almost 500 licensed locations, where the employer is not Starbucks but the licensing company.
Stanford said hospitality is difficult to unionize — and keep unionized — in part because of turnover, but also because of the often-fragmented nature of companies like Starbucks, including the mix of corporate and licensed stores.
Though the Victoria store was the only unionized one in Canada when it certified, there were a handful of unionized Starbucks locations in the past.
Stanford said though Starbucks employees are getting a lot of attention for their efforts, workers across all industries are turning to unions in the wake of the pandemic.
Broad said she thinks the movement in the U.S. is helping fuel interest in Canada.
“I’m really hoping to see it spread across all of the provinces. And just for it to be more of a norm.”
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
