United States: historic union presence at Starbucks

On 09 December 2021 workers at a Starbucks coffee shop in Buffalo, New York State voted to form a trade union. The vote occurred a few weeks after the Workers United labour union was established at another of the US coffee chain’s locations in the same area. The federal NLRB (National Labor Relations Board), which oversaw the elections, has just announced the victory secured by the Starbucks Workers United (SWU) union, which is affiliated to the powerful service sector SEIU (Service Employees International Union). Management at Seattle-based Starbucks did everything it could to counter the arrival of a union, arguing that its employees are well paid and can take their demands directly to them. In the autumn 2021 managers from other states were even sent to Buffalo to try to solve the local problems of understaffing and difficult working conditions. However this did not prevent two out of three stores in the Buffalo metropolitan area from giving their votes to the union, making it now possible to open wage negotiations. So far, while only two out of 9,000 stores have affiliated with the SWU, others may follow suit. An election is planned in Mesa, Arizona the result of which should be known by the end of January. Ten other coffee shops are also waiting for NLRB decisions on their pending petitions for trade union elections.