BUFFALO, N.Y. :Starbucks Corp on Thursday failed to fend off a labor organizing drive https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/starbucks-union-drive-spurred-by-barista-burnout-mobile-orders-2021-12-09 as employees in Buffalo, New York, voted to join a union in one of three stores.
Employees at one Starbucks location in Buffalo voted to join Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. The vote counting for two other stores in the upstate New York city was still continuing on Thursday. The Seattle-based coffee chain could still challenge the results of the election. But if the outcome holds, the company would gain its first unionized location in the United States in decades.
About 15 Starbucks employees who support the union drive had gathered in a room in Buffalo to watch results. Many jumped, screamed and hugged when they realized they had enough votes to win the store on Elmwood Avenue.Starbucks had several unionized cafes and a roastery in the United States the 1980s, but all eventually decertified. It beat back organizing campaigns in Philadelphia and New York City, but one location in Canada unionized in 2020.