SEATTLE — Starbucks workers at the coffee giant's flagship roastery in Seattle voted Thursday to form a union, the chain's latest location to form a collective bargaining unit.
The Seattle store voted 38-27 to unionize. The movement began with three stores in the Buffalo area, which now has six union shops.
Workers United said 26 Starbucks locations have unionized nationwide. The Starbucks Reserve and Roastery in the Capitol Hill neighborhood is the business’s second to unionize in its hometown of Seattle.
“As we have said throughout, we will respect the process and will bargain in good faith. We hope that the union does the same,” Reggie Borges, a spokesman for Starbucks, said in a statement.
Starbucks has multiple flagship stores. The Seattle outlet joined the one in New York in forming a union.
“A big part of it is just that we don’t have a seat at the table, we don’t have a voice in our workplace,” said Liz Duran, an operations lead at Starbucks. “People have been pushed to the edge more and more and more throughout recent years, and with the breaking point being over, the COVID pandemic really just bringing workers to a point where you realize the power that we really do have."
Earlier this month, 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.