Starbucks Corp. employees are now petitioning to unionize at around 50 stores across the U.S., rapidly expanding the reach of a campaign that last month established the sole unionized foothold among the chain’s thousands of corporate-run U.S. sites.
On Monday, the Workers United union said it’s filing 15 unionization petitions with the National Labor Relations Board, which follow dozens of others submitted in the weeks since the group’s landmark victory in a Buffalo, New York, election. Collective bargaining talks at that store began Monday, the union said.
Starbucks didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry. The company’s North America president, Rossann Williams, reiterated in a December letter to employees that “we do not want a union between us as partners,” but that the company respects the legal process and will bargain in good faith at the first New York store where the union prevailed.
