Workers unionize at flagship Seattle Starbucks roastery

Michelle Eisen, a barista at the Buffalo, N.Y., Elmwood Starbucks location, the first Starbucks location to unionize, helps out the local Starbucks Workers United, employees of a local Starbucks, as they gather at a local union hall to cast votes to unionize or not, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

SEATTLE — Starbucks workers at the coffee giant's flagship roastery in Seattle voted Thursday to form a union, the chain's latest location to form a collective bargaining unit.

The Seattle store voted 38-27 to unionize.

Workers United said 26 Starbucks locations have unionized nationwide. The Starbucks Reserve and Roastery in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood is the business's second to unionize in its hometown of Seattle.

"As we have said throughout, we will respect the process and will bargain in good faith. We hope that the union does the same," Reggie Borges, a spokesman for Starbucks, said in a statement.

Starbucks has multiple flagship stores. The Seattle outlet joined the one in New York in forming a union.

"A big part of it is just that we don't have a seat at the table, we don't have a voice in our workplace," said Liz Duran, an operations lead at Starbucks. "People have been pushed to the edge more and more and more throughout recent years, and with the breaking point being over, the COVID pandemic really just bringing workers to a point where you realize the power that we really do have."