Today, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) counted the mail-in ballots for the Bloomfield Starbucks store on Liberty Avenue. Partners, who gathered at both Starbucks’ Craig St and Bloomfield location, cheered as they watched the vote count via livestream. The vote was unanimous. Bloomfield partners were joined by local labor leaders and City Councilmember Deb Gross.
The Bloomfield location was the first Steel City store to go public with the intent to unionize in February of this year. In the two months since the Bloomfield partners filed for, and now won, a union election, they have been joined by five additional stores across the Pittsburgh area. Nationally, more than 200 Starbucks locations throughout the U.S. have now petitioned for union elections, with many additional stores actively organizing to prepare to file for elections.
The Bloomfield Starbucks Organizing Committee, said:
“We are so proud to become the first union Starbucks café in Pennsylvania. We are happy to carry the torch in Pittsburgh. Our win today is a win for baristas across the Commonwealth, and all workers in the struggle to organize! We urge Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to do what’s right and sign the Starbucks Workers United Non-interference and Fair Election Principles.”
The Bloomfield victory is monumental for Starbucks partners, joining 18 unionized locations out of the over 8,000 Starbucks corporate stores in the United States. The Bloomfield partners are proud to have brought the national campaign’s explosive momentum to the cradle of the early US labor rights movement.
Partners at the five additional Pittsburgh locations continue to organize in spite of Starbucks’ outrageous anti-union campaign across the country. Numerous Pittsburgh locations have already experienced an unprecedented amount of retaliatory action from Starbucks’ management.
However, in spite of Starbucks’ resistance to union efforts, partners are hoping that Starbucks will now work with the unionized store and sit down at the bargaining table to negotiate a contract in good faith.
