50th Starbucks Store Joins Union As Movement Grows

SEATTLE — The Starbucks United Workers Movement celebrated a milestone Tuesday as the 50th coffee shop joined the union. It's significant achievement, but organizers say the movement is just beginning.

Five Starbucks locations voted to join the union Tuesday, four of which were in Massachusetts— including the Mt. Auburn store in Watertown, MA, whcih organizers say is officially the 50th store to join the union effort.

The Workers United Movement is hot off a winning streak: What started as just one union drive in Buffalo, NY has exploded into a nationwide movement. Employees have now unionized stores in 17 states, including a recent victory at Starbucks' flagship Reserve Roastery in Seattle.

And it has only continued to keep growing. As of Tuesday, more than 250 Starbucks locations have filed to join the union, including several in Starbucks' backyard. Just this week, Seattle's Madison Park location — the home store of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz — officially lodged a union petition.

"We have shared ourselves, our safety, and our wellbeing with the company, and we have been met with compromises — on allotted labor, pay equity, and partner health and safety — which diminish the quality of our workplace, undermining our ability to create best moments," Madison Park employees wrote in an open letter to Schultz. "These compromises cannot be patched up with NFTs and new cold foam blenders. We are calling on you to hold yourself to the standard you've set: act with courage, and treat your employees with transparency, dignity, and respect."

In the past, Starbucks has declined to comment directly on the Seattle unionization effort, but it has broadly pushed back on unionization. In December, the company published a letter to employees at its 8,000 stores saying Starbucks did not want stores to unionize, but will respect the legal process.

Behind the scenes, the Starbucks Workers United movement says Starbucks has "aggressively adopted an anti-union stance", accusing the company of using intimidation, lies and scare tactics to curtail the unionization effort.

When asked if they had a message for Starbucks and Schultz about their efforts to squelch unionization efforts, union members in Seattle didn't mince words.

"This is a losing battle," said worker Sydney Durkin. "We're not going to give up, we're not going to give in on each other."