(Newser) – Starbucks workers at the coffee giant’s flagship Seattle roastery voted Thursday to form a union, the chain’s latest location. The Seattle store voted 38 to 27 to unionize. According to Workers United, 26 Starbucks locations nationwide have unionized. The Starbucks Reserve and Roastery in the Capitol Hill neighborhood is the second company to unionize in its hometown of Seattle, the AP reports. “As we have always said, we will respect the process and negotiate in good faith. We hope the union does the same,” Reggie Borges, a spokesman for Starbucks, said in a statement.
The vote approved joining Workers United, an affiliate of Service Employees International Union, according to the Seattle Times. Starbucks has several flagship stores, and the Seattle outlet joined the one in New York to form a union. “A big part of that is just that we don’t have a seat at the table, we don’t have a voice in our workplace,” said Liz Duran, operations lead at Starbucks. “People have become increasingly marginalized in recent years and with the tipping point over the COVID pandemic is really just bringing workers to a point where you realize the power we really have.”
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