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(Image: Studio Meng Strazzara)

As far as a Seattle Starbucks goes, the shop that opened five years ago at the corner of Broadway and Denny is unremarkable.

But after Tuesday afternoon’s announcement, the cafe will be remembered in the city’s labor history.

With Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant at their side, workers from the Capitol Hill shop celebrated Tuesday’s 9-0 vote certifying unionization through the National Labor Relations Board.

The successful vote makes the Starbucks — one of the company’s four stand-alone shops on Capitol Hill — the first in the coffee giant’s headquarters city to unionize its workers as a wave of labor organizing has hit the chain with hundreds of more votes to come at shops across the country.

In Seattle, a half dozen more are lined up to follow the Broadway and Denny store’s lead including workers at the company’s flagship Starbucks Roastery at the base of Capitol Hill at Pike and Melrose. Workers at the E Olive Way “Gaybucks,” so far, have not pursued unionization.

CHS talked with workers from the Broadway shop about the organizing efforts here in January. “It’s really about everyone’s fundamental right to have representation at work,” Starbucks worker Rachel Ybarra told CHS. “It’s bigger than just our store or just Starbucks. It’s really about what we can do for not just the industry but workers everywhere when we all stand together and demand fairness.”

Starbucks Workers United? Why baristas at Broadway and Denny shop are demanding unionization

The Starbucks votes are part of a wave of efforts to organize labor at some of the largest companies in the nation that experts say align with the pandemic, record job openings, and rising expectations for better pay and working conditions. Smaller entities are also part of the changing mood around labor including the Broadway location of second hand clothing chain Crossroads Trading.

The Denny and Broadway store workers will now be represented by Starbucks Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, and will collectively bargain over pay and working conditions. The workers will also, of course, now be subject to union dues. Negotiations on a new contract could end up a protracted battle.

District 3 representative Sawant has been a vocal proponent of the Broadway at Denny workers, helping lead the City Council to pass a resolution to back the efforts. “The Seattle City Council believes that this unionization drive will benefit not only Starbucks workers, but all workers in Seattle,” the resolution read.

In addition to adding its support to the union efforts, the council’s resolution voiced support for “card check neutrality,” a growing movement to replace or augment elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board with negotiated agreements between union representatives.

Tuesday’s announcement came after the NLRB denied a request from Starbucks to delay the vote, an effort organizers said was part of the company’s ongoing attempts to stymie the labor effort.

“We must build on the momentum of today’s union victory in Seattle to fight back against Starbucks’ union-busting and broaden the union struggle,” Sawant said in a statement released through her City Council office Tuesday. “If workers and the labor movement don’t fight to stop Starbucks’ union-busting and reverse their retaliatory firings, the company will be emboldened to escalate its campaign of intimidation and retaliation.”

…. and the workers at the Broadway & Denny Starbucks store in Seattle have UNANIMOUSLY WON their union election!!!

Congrats to @sovietminds@goblin_barista @scrappypappy2 & everyone at @SeattleSBWU!

Public rally April 23 @ 1PM Cal Anderson Park!https://t.co/v9Ka04WKRI pic.twitter.com/hYyob9w191

— Kshama Sawant (@cmkshama) March 22, 2022

Sawant’s office also announced the District 3 representative is holding a rally April 23rd in Cal Anderson Park “to demand an end to Starbucks’ union busting” and urged other area labor leaders to join in organizing the event.

Starbucks, one of Seattle’s largest employers, is also undergoing a major change in leadership. Last week, CEO Kevin Johnson announced his retirement as Howard Schultz will temporarily return to lead the $101 billion company.

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Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

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