BUFFALO (AP/WBEN) - Workers hoping to unionize three Starbucks stores in Buffalo have won a preliminary victory before the National Labor Relations Board.
The board said employees can hold separate union elections in November, and the board rejected Starbucks' attempt to hold a single vote with 20 stores in the region.
Some of the leaders behind the unionizing effort held a press conference Friday morning to explain what the ruling means and provide a timeline moving forward.
"We'll have three union votes at the three stores where we have active petitions," said attorney Ian Hayes. "Those will be done by mail ballot in November into December, with the ballots being counted on December 9."
Michelle Eisen of the Elmwood store has been one of the leaders in this fight, and she believes the voting process is simply a formality at this point.
"Now it's not a matter of if we will have a union, but when we will have a union," she said.
There are about 128 employees at the three stores that will vote, according to the NLRB decision.
Starbucks said Thursday evening that it had just received the ruling and was evaluating its options. The company reported record fiscal fourth quarter revenue of $8.1 billion earlier Thursday and had announced a $1 billion effort to raise U.S. workers' pay.
"Our storied success has come from our working directly together as partners, without a third party between us," Starbucks said Thursday in a statement. "We remain focused on supporting our partners as well as maintaining open, transparent and direct conversations throughout the process."
If the effort is successful, the stores would be the first of Starbucks' 8,000 company-owned U.S. stores to unionize.
