Seeking union vote, workers at Seattle Starbucks bring labor push to coffee giant’s hometown

SEATTLE – Weeks after a successful union drive in New York state, workers at a Seattle Starbucks store are moving forward with a unionization effort, bringing the coffee chain’s high-profile labor fight to its hometown.

Employees at a Starbucks in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood filed a petition Monday with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to hold a union election on Jan. 10.

“We do not see our desire to unionize as a reaction to specific policies, events, or changes, but rather a commitment to growing the company and the quality of our work. We see unionizing as a fundamental and necessary way to participate in Starbucks and its future as partners,” wrote four employees, who the company refers to as partners, in a letter to Kevin Johnson, CEO of the Seattle-based coffee giant.

A Starbucks spokesperson did not comment on the Seattle store, but pointed to a Monday letter from Executive Vice President Rossann Williams to Starbucks employees.

“From the beginning, we’ve been clear in our belief that we do not want a union between us as partners, and that conviction has not changed,” Williams wrote.

“However, we have also said that we respect the legal process.”

Forming a union would allow the employees to collectively bargain with management over their pay and working conditions. The announcement Monday is the latest among Starbucks workers.

Workers at a Buffalo, New York, Starbucks earlier this month formed the first union at a corporate-owned store in the company’s 50-year history. Employees there joined Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.

Starbucks “will bargain in good faith” with workers at that store, Williams wrote.

Starbucks employees in a second Buffalo store voted against unionizing, and the results were still being resolved at a third. The union has filed an objection to the election at the store where it lost, the New York Times reported.

Soon after the Buffalo elections, workers at two Boston-area Starbucks announced their plans to unionize. Employees at a store in Mesa, Arizona, are also attempting to unionize.