In Just One Year, Starbucks Workers Have Won 267 Union Elections
A year ago today, Starbucks workers in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionize. Since then the campaign has exploded nationwide, with an impressive 267 Starbucks locations now unionized.
Unionized workers strike for unfair labor practices outside a Starbucks in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 19, 2022. (M. Scott Brauer / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
On December 9, 2021, nineteen Starbucks workers in Buffalo voted to unionize with Starbucks Workers United, a Service Employees International Union (SEIU)–affiliated union for Starbucks workers. In the next 365 days, 3,626 more Starbucks workers joined with the initial nineteen, resulting in 267 unionized Starbucks stores covering around 6,951 Starbucks employees.
The speed and success of the Starbucks unionization campaign has been astonishing. Last year, the Starbucks campaigners unionized a new store every 1.3 days. Over this period, the Starbucks union has accounted for 21 percent of all NLRB election victories.
For the anniversary of its first victory, I have compiled the following statistics about the ongoing union campaign.
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