Des Moines Starbucks could be 4th in Iowa to unionize; sip-in Saturday

A Des Moines Starbucks could be the next Starbucks store to unionize by next month.

As Starbucks workers unionize across the country, Iowa has seen just three stores unionize, all in Eastern Iowa:

• Iowa City unionized in 2023;
• Davenport followed in 2024;
• Bettendorf was the latest, earlier this year.

Now, there could be a Central Iowa store joining them—and the first in Iowa’s capital.

Workers at the Starbucks on Merle Hay Road in Des Moines are voting next month on whether to be represented by Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), which represents thousands of workers at hundreds of stores across the US. The company agreed to start bargaining with SBWU in March of 2024, though no agreement has yet been reached.

I spoke this week with Jacob Scroggins, a shift supervisor who has led the effort to organize his store with the help of Iowa’s other unionized Starbucks workers.

It all started, he says, when he was scheduled “open to close on Christmas Day.”

“This was maybe a month into me being a shift supervisor,” Scroggins said. “I received very little training … I was already very much burnt out.”

Yet he wasn’t quite certain he wanted to start a union—he said he had “a lot of fear” given the company’s “general anti-union propaganda and tactics.” Even though he wasn’t making much money, he still was worried he was risking his job.

But Scroggins noticed he wasn’t the only one hitting a breaking point. As part of the company’s new dress code, another coworker was told to remove her face piercing; as Scroggins put it, workers felt like they were “being told to scale back who you are.”

So he emailed SBWU asking for more information. In March, he heard from a friend at the unionized Iowa City Starbucks, asking him what he needed.

That finally kickstarted the effort—17 full- and part-time baristas, along with shift supervisors like Scroggins, filed a petition to unionize June 27, and are voting Aug. 7.

If successful, they’ll be the fourth unionized Starbucks in Iowa. And Scroggins is glad he finally took the leap.

“I mean, corporate is scary,” he said. “But this—the act of organizing and getting everyone together for this cause of supporting ourselves and letting our voices be heard—has genuinely already changed my life and the life of the baristas at the store.”

To highlight their effort and boost morale, workers are holding a “sip-in” this Saturday (July 26) from 8-10 a.m.

“Come in, enjoy some coffee, chat with other union workers, chat with us—we are talkers, to say the least,” Scroggins said. “Just stand in solidarity.”

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