COFFEE COMRADES

Buffalo Starbucks Becomes First to Unionize in Company’s History

Workers at the Elmwood location voted 19-8 to form a union, while another nearby store’s union vote failed.

Workers at a Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York have voted to become the first in the company’s history to form a union. The Elmwood Avenue store’s employees passed the union vote 19-8. Another Buffalo store nearby voted against unionizing, while the votes at a third location were expected to be counted later on Thursday. Starbucks executives have spent more than three months combating the union drive in the Buffalo area, traveling to the city personally to hear employees air grievances like burnout and insufficient training. The company also announced wage increases in October and “packed” some stores with additional employees in what critics called a calculated move to decrease support for unionization. Starbucks, which employs roughly 235,000 people at 9,000 stores, has previously fought off unionization drives in New York City in the 2000s, and more recently in Philadelphia in 2019.