BUFFALO, N.Y. — Another Buffalo area Starbucks voted to form a union on Thursday.
Votes were counted for three locations across New York, one of those locations being the Starbucks on Delaware Avenue and Chippewa Street in downtown Buffalo.
Workers at the Delaware and Chippewa store voted yes to a union 18-1, according to the National Labor Relations Board's tally.
“Starbucks has continuously used our store for their Union-busting media. They stay in the hotels across from our store that none of us can afford. They send the President of Starbucks North America to yell at closing shifts for not calling in partners to help with an under scheduled closing,” said Rose Doherty, a barista at the Delaware-Chippewa store in a press release.
“Starbucks has continuously tried to make our store an uncomfortable and uncaring place, but we fought through it as partners and family. We are ecstatic at our victory today, but we wish that we didn’t have to go through this, and call on Starbucks to sign the fair election principles so no other store has to go through the heinous treatment we endured.”
It became the 11th store in the nation to vote for a union and the sixth in the Buffalo area. The Delaware and Chippewa store joins the ones on Walden Avenue and Anderson Road in Cheektowaga, Sheridan Drive and Bailey Avenue in Amherst, Genesee Street in Cheektowaga, Elmwood Village, and French Road and Transit Road in Depew.
Votes were also counted for two Starbucks stores in Rochester. The Mt. Hope cafe became the first Starbucks in the city to vote yes for a union with a tally of 13-11. Additionally, the Brighton, Monroe and Clover store voted to form a union 10-3.
Votes for three stores in Ithaca will be counted on Friday.
Starbucks Workers United reports that over 180 stores across 29 states have filed union petitions.