Starbucks Workers In Meatpacking District Decide To Unionize

WEST VILLAGE, NY — In the wake of three Buffalo Starbucks locations beginning union efforts at the end of 2021, three more locations of the coffee chain in New York City announced Thursday they are seeking to unionize, including one in the Meatpacking District.

Employees at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery at 61 9th Avenue, two blocks north of West 14th Street, declared they have decided to unionize along with workers at another location in Manhattan, one in Brooklyn, and one more in Long Island.

The Roastery in the Meatpacking District is the largest Starbucks location on the east coast.

The three shops are the first Starbucks in New York City to make the push to unionize.

Overall, it brings the total number of Starbucks union petitions filed nationally to 72 across 21 states, with 16 of those shops located in New York.

"I am tired of being exploited and I am tired of seeing other baristas being chastised when they care about their own safety or about the safety of their families and communities," Joselyn Chuquillanqui, an employee of one of the Starbucks locations announcing its push for unionization on Thursday, said in a news release. "These problems are not new, but they have gotten worse with COVID-19."

Earlier this week, Starbucks fired seven employees at a Memphis store who were in the process of trying to form a union — saying that they had violated company policy.

Mark Mao, a roasting operator at the Meatpacking District location, told the New York Times that the past years had felt like a "litany of broken promises" when it came to wages, staffing, and safety.

You can find out more about the New York City Starbucks location's decision to unionize on this Twitter thread from SBWorkersUnited.