The nationwide Starbucks unionization push has made it to California.
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Workers at two Santa Cruz Starbucks locations on Tuesday voted to become the first of the coffee empire's California stores to unionize.
The store at Mission and Dufour Street voted 15 to two to join the union while the store at Ocean and Water Street voted 13 to one, according to KSBW. At least 51% of a store’s employees need to vote in favor of the union for official recognition.
In addition, a third location has a vote to unionize scheduled for June.
The union organizer at the Ocean and Water Street location told KSBW in January, when the union petition was first filed, that employees believed management wasn’t doing enough to protect its workers and that the location can be dangerous and experiences high rates of harassment and other hazardous situations.
The two stores joined the more than 230 locations across the country which have filed petitions for union elections and the over 50 which have voted to join the national union Workers United since December, according to NPR.
"We are listening and learning from the partners in these stores as we always do across the country," a Starbucks spokesperson told KCBS Radio in an emailed statement. "From the beginning, we’ve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed. We respect our partner’s right to organize and are committed to following the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) process.”
KCBS Radio reached out to Starbucks Workers United for comment and did not receive a reply prior to publication.
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