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Hugs and cheers Thursday after Starbucks workers voted in favor of a union at one company-owned Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York... in a first for the coffee giant in the U.S.
The store in upstate New York voted to join Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. Workers at a second location in Buffalo voted to reject the drive to organize.
The vote at a third store ended without a definitive result because a number of ballots were still under review.
The closely watched results come as Corporate America eyes new union organizing campaigns amid a U.S. labor shortage that has already led to higher wages at most large retailer and restaurant chains.
Though financial analyst Art Hogan told Reuters on Thursday, the path toward unionization at Starbucks won’t be easy.
“Does this, you know, going to tip over the applecart for them or is this the beginning of something where employees say how well am I treated as Starbucks? And when you step back and look at the way Starbucks actually treats their employees both being one of the first companies to raise the the minimum wage for employees. Paying for education and the fact that they've kept their employees safe by shutting down stores during the pandemic. I think that that it's one of those cases that's gonna you'd be hard pressed to say union is gonna have a very easy road into all of these stores.”
Some local baristas had decried what they said were aggressive company tactics, including flooding Buffalo locations with executives, holding meetings with employees and even bringing in ex-CEO Howard Schultz to talk to workers and extol the virtues of existing wage hikes and benefits.
Starbucks denies that any of its actions amounted to union busting.
The vote was 19-8 in favor of joining the union.