There are many issues here, Teamsters local 243 notified the National Labor Relations Board that they “officially withdraws and disclaims interest” a union will only withdraw interest if they no longer have the support of their members or the unit is no longer worth the expense and time to do the hard work of obtaining a CBA. if the union truly were dedicated to organizing this national chain, they would have had a better national strategy and structure to address the issues and the concerns of the workers not only at this location but on a national level.  

This union had motivative workers who connected with Labor Notes and Teamsters for a democratic Union (TDU) organization for support and utilized how to organize literature from TDU, they also had on hand support from some Starbucks organizers.

Workers was quoted as saying “the path forward often felt uncertain “We were so focused on unionizing we didn’t really think to ask them for a plan.  None of the Chipotle employees who voted to unionize had ever been a part of a union before, and affiliating with the Teamsters was a crash course in understanding the structure and mechanics of large international unions”. And that workers in the store lost faith that the union had a viable plan to overcome the company’s resistance.”

I have stated many times that organizers often only tell the targeted organizing workers what they want to hear and don’t prepare them for the hard work it takes to obtain the first contract. That burden is carried by the union staff that is actually at the table.

This is a short-term victory for the company, the unit is still frustrated with management and with about 4,000 restaurants in the US including all company-operated locations and international partner-operated restaurants they are a big target, other national unions as well as the Teamsters are going to continue to target these locations especially with the renewed push by both big labor and grassroots organizations to concentrate on big organizing campaigns, I remember when the first Starbucks was organized, now there are over 11,000 workers at 500 Starbucks locations,125 in 2025.

While there is union activity at this restaurant chain I haven’t seen evidence of a true cohesive strategy or sophisticated well-funded national corporate campaign to date but unions are not going away, and companies don’t have the luxury to ignore union activity, well trained supervision who understands union tactics and how to spot union activity along with a comprehensive communication policy are vital to maintaining a productive union free environment.

https://pslabor.com/

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