Workers at two more Starbucks stores voted to unionize this week, one in Seattle and one in Mesa, Arizona. That makes the first on the West Coast and in particular the company’s hometown, and the second in Mesa, which becomes the second city, after Buffalo, with more than one unionized Starbucks store. And it makes eight union wins out of nine votes—a tiny number of stores in the context of the 9,000 Starbucks nationwide, but an excellent win percentage. That win-loss record comes as Starbucks spends large amounts of money on union-busting lawyers. And by the way, the Seattle vote was unanimous.
The number of stores at which workers have filed for union representation elections keeps growing, now sitting around 150. At some point, will Starbucks consider that it’s losing a lot while spending a lot of money on losing, and consider changing its approach?
