OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Political Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the political frame
2. Apply the political frame to your personal case situation

CONFIDENTIAL

Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

I’m a Store Manager for Starbucks Coffee, and I’m using a situation that has
taken over how we move forward as a partner-led company. Despite being a beloved
company over the past two years Starbucks has been dealing with employees wanting to
be represented by a Union.
In 2021, Buffalo, New York stores joined Workers United of the Service
Employees International Union. According to their website, “We are organizing a union
to bring out the best in all of us. Our organizing committee includes Starbucks partners
from across the United States. Many of us have invested years of our lives at Starbucks,
while others have recently become partners. We all have one thing in common — we
want the company to succeed and our work lives to be the best they can be. (Starbucks
Workers United, n.d.)”
Since then over 8,000 workers at over 360 Starbucks stores in at least 40 states in
the United States have voted to unionize, and as of today none have yet enacted a
collective bargaining agreement.

2) Describe how the politics of the organization influenced the situation

Alliances formed with the union members because of their shared interests in
returning power to the partners and their belief that they can accomplish more together
than they could apart. To do this they needed power, and they turned to leverage an
alliance with the National Labor Relations Board to back up their voices. They have also
used their coercive powers to interfere with Starbucks's agenda on special promotional
days such as Red Cup Day by staging walkouts and promoting their agenda with the

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 special logos they put on their own Starbucks’ United Workers Red Cup. They used the
power of bottom-up change to disrupt old patterns.

Starbucks resisted the idea of the union and stands on the belief that while they
respect the right to organize, they are pro partner, and continue to have direct
relationships with their managers and employees. When initial campaign efforts were
being launched in Buffalo, they sent hundreds of leaders to market to support the
employee experience with training support stores, listening sessions, and a push for
leveraging the benefits that we offer and making us such a unique company.

3) Recommend how you would use organizational politics for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.

Politics are unavoidable in organizations but don’t always have to be destructive

and sordid. During COVID, I would have leveraged the power of our leadership teams in
our organization to lean into our values and promote long-term partnerships with our
hourly partners by hosting listening sessions, and hearing what is on their minds during
the toughest times our company has faced.
Starbucks employees were on the front line every day, and most stores remained
open even during the initial eight-week government lockdowns. The partners put their
lives on the line to go to work and serve in the green apron despite knowing how the
virus was spreading at that point. The company offered paid time off during that point
and allowed partners to stay home if they wanted, and could do so for that entire eight
weeks. Employees that chose to work, were paid a premium wage during this time. When
Starbucks decided to reopen all stores, we gave employees a choice to come back or take
a leave of absence, or a severance package if they weren’t ready to serve the public.
Starbucks continued to support partners during this time, if they were impacted
and caught COVID or were even exposed they were paid for their entire isolation period
and even were allotted additional sick time to get vaccinated if they chose to do so.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about this frame.

Looking back I’m not sure I would do much differently. While most companies
were experiencing major layoffs and closing locations, our company took care of us. I for
sure would have leveraged our leadership more to share impactful messages and listen to
the worries that were on their partner's minds. As investments and changes were
happening I would have made sure that our front-line employees felt like they were being
valued, and supported. Even now the conflict has created creative investments toward our
partners, that I’m not sure would have been prioritized without the pressure of the union.
I would work to move into collective bargaining with the stores that have chosen
to unionize. This isn’t the first time Starbucks has been confronted with union

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 organization, back in 1985 the roasting plants were unionized and reached collective
bargaining in 1986. One store employee, Daryl Moore, together with signatures of other
workers opposed to the union, successfully moved to decertify the union in late 1987.
The union for warehouse and roasting plant workers was also decertified in 1992. It is
proven if we take the time to invest in our people, they will reciprocate with loyalty.

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 References

Starbucks Workers United. (n.d.). Starbucks Workers United. https://sbworkersunited.org/