Starbucks baristas at the East Speedway and North Park Avenue location have voted to join a union, becoming the second local store to seek union representation.
Six workers at the Starbucks at 910 E. Speedway on Wednesday night voted unanimously to join Starbucks Workers United, an affiliate of of Service Employees International Union.
“Today is a very special day, because as a store we came together and stood for what we believe in and now we’re one step closer towards a better future,” Shae Hollins, a shift supervisor at the store for eight years, said in a news release.
Baristas at Starbucks’ nearby Main Gate Square shop, 814 E. University Blvd., voted to unionize in 2022 on an 11-3 vote.
Since Starbucks Workers United’s formation in 2021, more than 10,000 employees at more than 460 Starbucks stores have won union NLRB elections in 44 states and the District of Columbia, the union says.
The union said it has yet to reach a collective bargaining agreement that would serve as a framework for individual store contracts.
But negotiations with Starbucks progressed on non-economic issues during meetings in June, the union says.
Starbucks and the union came back to the bargaining table in May, after the coffee giant was cited by the National Labor Relations Board in 2023 for refusing to negotiate.
The company also has been hit with hundreds of unfair labor practice charges filed with the NLRB, alleging retaliation, intimidation and harassment.
Starbucks has consistently denied violating any labor laws.
There are nearly four dozen Starbucks locations in the Tucson area.
