AOC cheers flagship NYC Starbucks store voting to unionize: 'Another huge victory'
Employees of the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Manhattan's Chelsea Market voted 46-36 to unionize with Starbucks Workers United
Starbucks Genese St. shift supervisor Caroline Lerczak on forming the first Starbucks union in the U.S.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez celebrated Friday's unionization vote of a flagship Starbucks store in New York City.
Employees of the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Manhattan's Chelsea Market voted 46-36 to unionize with Starbucks Workers United, joining a growing movement among the chain's workers to organize.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SBUX | STARBUCKS CORP. | 73.11 | -1.82 | -2.43% |
"ANOTHER huge victory today - Starbucks workers at the massive NYC Roastery / [Starbucks Workers United] just won a momentous union election," Ocasio-Cortez said on social media.
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Pro-union pins sit on a table during a watch party for Starbucks employees' union election, Dec. 9, 2021, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Joshua Bessex, File / AP Newsroom)
"The Starbucks Reserve Roastery in NYC's Chelsea market voted 46-36 to unionize tonight, making history as the first flagship store to unionize with Starbucks Workers United and the tenth unionized Starbucks in the U.S," Starbucks Workers United wrote in a press release Friday.
The coffee giant has seen an increasingly vocal movement within its labor force to organize for higher wages and better bargaining power. The Chelsea Market location is the highest-profile branch location of the chain to unionize.
Employees wearing masks pose outside the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Chelsea, July 30, 2020, in New York City. (Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images / Getty Images)
"The NYC store is one of only three roastery locations in the country," the SBWU statement added. "In close collaboration with Starbucks partners (employees), the Workers United NY/NJ Regional Joint Board will now represent nearly 100 partners who work at the store."
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It was the second major unionization vote in New York City Friday.
Starbucks Coffee logo seen in the center of Dublin Nov. 16, 2020, in Dublin, Ireland. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Union supporters at an Amazon facility in Staten Island secured a wide enough margin to give the Amazon Labor Union, which had been spearheading the union effort, enough support to pull off a win.
A person wears a face mask outside a Starbucks Reserve Roastery Sept. 29, 2020, in New York City. (Noam Galai/Getty Images / Getty Images)