Two more Starbucks locations in Boston are moving to unionize as “part of a nationwide wave of change for baristas and food service workers alike,” the employees said on Wednesday.
A month after a couple other Greater Boston Starbucks announced they were looking to unionize following a successful vote at a Buffalo, N.Y., location, two more Boston stores are now filing to organize.
The locations are in Brighton’s Cleveland Circle (1948 Beacon St.) and in Allston (217 Western Ave.).
“Boston is coming in hot — two more stores file for union elections!” Starbucks Workers United tweeted on Wednesday. “Get ready for some wicked good UNION coffee.”
The two previous Greater Boston Starbucks locations that moved to unionize are in Allston and Brookline’s Coolidge Corner.
“Unions are the backbone of our working world, and we recognize that forming one is the only true way to become agents of change in the workplace,” the union organizing committee for the Cleveland Circle and Western Avenue locations wrote to Starbucks’ Seattle headquarters.
“We’ve watched the COVID-19 pandemic shake the foundation of labor in America,” the committee added. “Our choice to file today is part of a nationwide wave of change for baristas and food service workers alike. We are choosing to stand in solidarity with workers all over this country while we work together to reimagine the future of labor.”
The union organizing committee is urging Starbucks to recognize its “legal right to unionize as an individual store and ending their shameless union-busting.”
Starbucks workers at a Buffalo store voted to unionize last month, a first for the 50-year-old coffee retailer in the U.S. and the latest sign that the labor movement is stirring after decades of decline.
The National Labor Relations Board said the workers voted 19-8 in favor of a union at one of three locations in Buffalo.
“Our position hasn’t changed: Starbucks success—past, present and future—is built on how we partner together, always with Our Mission and Values at our core,” a Starbucks spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.
The spokesperson added, “From the beginning, we’ve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners, without a union between us at Starbucks, and that conviction has not changed.”
Starbucks owns more than 8,000 stores in the U.S.
The union victory in Buffalo last month set off a wave of interest at other Starbucks locations. In addition to those in Greater Boston, others stores in Arizona, Oregon, Illinois, Colorado, Tennessee and Starbucks’ home city of Seattle have petitioned the labor board for union elections.
Herald wire services were used in this report.
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