STARBUCKS and a union seeking to organise the coffee chain’s US workforce said on Tuesday they have agreed to create a “framework” to guide organising and collective bargaining and potentially settle scores of pending legal disputes.

In a joint announcement, Starbucks and Workers United said that during talks last week to settle an ongoing court case, “a constructive path forward emerged” on the future of the nationwide labour campaign that began in 2021 and has led workers to unionise at nearly 400 of the company’s 9,000 US stores.

According to the announcement, Starbucks and the union agreed to begin discussions on a “foundational framework” that includes a fair process for workers to organise and a process to achieve collective bargaining agreements on a store-by-store basis.

Starbucks said that “as a sign of good faith,” it has agreed to provide workers at unionised stores with benefits that were granted to non-union workers in 2022, including the ability to receive customer tips from credit card transactions. REUTERS