Starbucks workers in Buffalo vote on unionization: yes, no, maybe so

One union coming right up...maybe.

Starbucks workers at a Buffalo–area location voted 19–8 to form a union, a first for the coffee chain. A second store voted 12–8 against unionizing, while the third location’s results are TBD as votes are contested.

“This is a historic moment in time,” said Michelle Eisen, a barista and 11-year partner at the Elmwood store, in a statement from Starbucks Workers United. “This win is the first step in changing what it means to be a partner at Starbucks, and what it means to work in the service industry more broadly.”

• Starbucks directed us to a letter by Rossann Williams, the company’s president of retail for North America, to employees after the vote. She wrote, in part: “We continue on as we did today, yesterday, and the day before that.”

Heads up: The National Labor Relations Board still needs to certify the results. Plus, challenges could be coming.

Cautious optimism: For those in the labor movement, the results (at least at one location) are a positive signal, said Lee Howard Adler, a labor and unions professor at Cornell University—but the vote might temper expectations moving forward.

“There’s no question that it yields hope, but I would continue to have a bit of reluctance to say that it’s much more than that,” he told Retail Brew.

Zoom out: Lots is going on in the world of labor right now. There are three more Starbucks stores in Buffalo and one in Arizona that have filed petitions with the NLRB to hold union elections.

• Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama are also getting a redo vote on unionization, while Kellogg said it’ll permanently replace workers on strike after they rejected a new contract.—KM