Starbucks stores in Buffalo made history yesterday. The Elmwood Avenue Starbucks has voted to unionize by a vote of 19-8, becoming the first coffee shop in the nation to unionize.  Of the companies 235,000+ employees, that work at over 8,500 locations across the country, none so far have been members of a union, until now here in Buffalo.

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A barista at the Elmwood store, Michelle Eisen took to Twitter to show her enthusiasm for the vote.

 

In a statement, Starbucks said:

"Starbucks is one of the most respected and admired companies in the world, built by partners in service of partners, customers and neighborhoods all across the country. I am so proud to be your partner and to continue moving forward stronger, together.

We want every partner to love working at Starbucks. We will keep finding new and better ways to continue leading on wages and benefits, improve our listening and active partnership, and keep building a company that matters. Because we are partners."

Workers at another store in Buffalo, had a different outcome as their vote had a count of 12 opposed versus 8 in favor of the union.  Each store in the Buffalo market's vote count is considered separately, which means that workers at the second store will not have union representation.

A third Buffalo Starbucks location's votes were inconclusive, as there were union challenges to some of the votes that will need to be resolved before the outcome of that location's vote is determined.

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