The Bloomfield Starbucks store on Liberty Avenue has become the first Starbucks location in Pennsylvania to win a union election. The National Labor Relations Board counted the mail-in ballots on April 13, finding the store’s 20 partners voted unanimously in favor of unionizing.
“We are so proud to become the first union Starbucks café in Pennsylvania,” says the Bloomfield Starbucks Organizing Committee. “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 to do what’s right and sign the Starbucks Workers United Non-interference and Fair Election Principles.”
The Bloomfield location was the first Steel City store to go public with the intent to unionize in February 2022. 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 victory is monumental for Starbucks partners, joining 18 unionized locations out of the over 8,000 Starbucks corporate stores in the United States,” reads a statement from The Pennsylvania Joint Board. “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 what they are calling Starbucks’ “outrageous anti-union campaign across the country.” Numerous Pittsburgh locations say they have experienced an “unprecedented amount of retaliatory action” from Starbucks’ management, according to the release.
A Starbucks spokesperson tells Pittsburgh City Paper, “We will become the best version of Starbucks by co-creating our future directly as partners, and we will strengthen the Starbucks community by upholding each other's dreams, upholding the standards and rituals of the company, celebrating partner individuality, and upholding behaviors of mutual respect and dignity.”
The Starbucks rep also reiterated their intent to enter into good faith negotiations with the new union.
Bloomfield Starbucks unanimously becomes first unionized location in Pennsylvania
