Workers at Buffalo Starbucks Store Vote ‘Yes’ to Unionize

Starbucks employees at a store in Buffalo made a historic move this week when they voted 19 to eight in favor of unionizing.

The vote at the coffee giant’s Elmwood Village location centered on whether or not the store employees would join Workers United, a union affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, according to Fox Business. The vote followed another Buffalo location that moved to reject unionization 12 to eight while a third store’s vote still remains unknown due to “several challenged ballots.”

Prior to the vote, Starbucks had appealed to the National Labor Relations Board asking that all 20 Buffalo locations would vote as one rather than store-by-store. The appeal was denied. Around 111 Starbucks employees were eligible to vote; 78 ballots were counted as of Thursday.

Alexis Rizzo, a shift supervisor at one of the Buffalo stores, told reporters Thursday she hopes others stores will be inspired by the vote.

We need to be able to give an input on what it’s like to be in these stores every single day, what this working environment is like, what the conditions are like and then have that voice lead to changes that are better for our working conditions, not changes that are better necessarily for the shareholders or the profits of the company. We really hope that the other stores in the area see this as a really positive example and are inspired by it.

Giana Reeve, a shift supervisor at another store, called the vote “monumental.”

“We hope that [Starbucks] will come to the bargaining table with us and in good faith negotiate so we can make a better life for our partners, a better life for our communities and a better workplace all around,” she said.

The NLRB must now certify the vote, which will take up to a week. Once clear, Elmwood will be the first of Starbuck’s 8,000 U.S. stores to unionize.