She appreciates Starbucks for raising her pay to $15 per hour in August. "Overall, I've only ever had a very positive experience working for Starbucks," said Langberg, a five-year employee. Labor organizers say the long wait for Starbucks to negotiate store contracts with Workers United — an offshoot of the Service Employees International Union — is hurting efforts to organize. "I've talked to partners at stores that haven't unionized and they say, 'I'm going to wait and see what happens,'" said Josie Serrano, a union organizer and Starbucks employee in Long Beach, California. "It's a bummer.