Seattle Starbucks Votes To Join Union

SEATTLE — A Seattle coffee shop has become the first unionized Starbucks in Washington state, following a successful unionization vote Tuesday.

The Broadway & Denny Starbucks, located in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, first filed a unionization petition back in December, following hot on the heels of the nation's first Starbucks union drive in Buffalo, N.Y.

To ratify their unionization, the Seattle location's 13 employees were asked to cast ballots to formally form a union. Ballots were mailed out Feb. 25, due Monday and were counted Tuesday.

Ultimately, 9 voted in favor of unionization, three did not cast their ballots at all. The final voter, identified only as Voter 5 during proceedings, cast a ballot but was not counted after Starbucks challenged their inclusion. Representatives with Starbucks Workers United disagreed with the challenge, but because the vote was not determinative, it was not counted.

In a conference celebrating their unanimous victory, the now-unionized employees called the success "heartwarming", noting that it was particularly important given that Starbucks is headquartered in Seattle, and that interim-CEO Howard Schultz lives in their district.

"We were able to make a statement," said Starbucks employee Rachel Ybarra. "We were able to show Starbucks we are going to stand for each other."

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 and their efforts to squelch unionization efforts, the newly-minted union members 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."

As of last count, over 150 stores in 27 states across the country have filed union petitions to join the Starbucks Workers United movement, the union said. Among those are six Seattle-area Starbucks locations, including the company's flagship Reserve Roastery.

The City of Seattle, meanwhile, has signed on to support the union movement. In February, the Seattle City Council passed a resolution to express solidarity with the unionizing workers, The Seattle Times reported. The resolution was sponsored by Councilmember Kshama Sawant, who has spoken out several times now in favor of unionizing workers, and decried Starbucks' "union busting" efforts.

"Today's YES vote by the City Council on this resolution from my office makes Seattle the first city to demand that Starbucks corporate executives and billionaires stop their shameful union busting, intimidation, and firings of courageous workers, and accept majority union votes at their stores," Sawant said in a statement following the vote. "Progressive and socialist elected representatives in every city should tell Starbucks to stop union busting!"