Baristas at a 6th area Starbucks file for a union vote

The organizing drive by Workers United has resulted in elections being set for two other Starbucks in the suburbs.

SHARE Baristas at a 6th area Starbucks file for a union vote
The Starbucks at 155 N. Wabash Ave. is among the local stores where employees are trying to unionize.

The Starbucks at 155 N. Wabash Ave. is among the Chicago-area stores where employees are trying to unionize.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file

Employees at a sixth Chicago-area Starbucks store have joined a union organizing campaign that supporters said has spread to more than 180 of its coffee shops throughout the United States. Meanwhile, union representation votes have been scheduled for two Starbucks outlets in the Chicago suburbs.

Workers at a Starbucks at 1070 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board asking for a union certification election. Grace Easterby, an organizer with Workers United, part of the Service Employees International Union, said the vote will cover 14 employees.

The NLRB has scheduled elections via mailed ballots for stores at 620 Northwest Highway, Cary, and 38 S. LaGrange Road, LaGrange. The agency’s records show the Cary ballots will be counted April 26 and the LaGrange ballots May 6.

The outcome will decide if the stores become the first Starbucks in the region to be unionized. Staff at three stores in Chicago also have requested a vote, but no dates have been set.

The organizing has gained momentum while still covering a tiny share of Starbucks’ roughly 9,000 sites in the United States. The Workers United effort marks a rare incursion by unions into chain-store food and beverages and could become a template for other restaurant campaigns.

Starbucks workers have cited better pay and benefits and more say in scheduling as among their priorities. The company has stated it supports the right to organize but regards employees as “partners” who don’t need a union.

Easterby said the union has won 10 of 11 elections that have occurred at Starbucks, all at stores outside of Illinois.

In several cases, Starbucks has requested that union elections occur not store by store, but within all stores in a corporate district, including places where employees have voiced no interest in unionizing. The NLRB has rejected that request.

The Chicago stores where workers are waiting for election dates are at 155 N. Wabash Ave., 2543 N. California Ave. and 1174 E. 55th St.

The Latest
The acquisition of Tamarack Farms makes Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge a more impactful destination and creates within Hackmatack a major macrosite for conservation.
The man was found unresponsive in an alley in the 10700 block of South Lowe Avenue, police said.
The man suffered head trauma and was pronounced dead at University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
Another federal judge in Chicago who also has dismissed gun cases based on the same Supreme Court ruling says the high court’s decision in what’s known as the Bruen case will “inevitably lead to more gun violence, more dead citizens and more devastated communities.”
Women make up just 10% of those in careers such as green infrastructure and clean and renewable energy, a leader from Openlands writes. Apprenticeships and other training opportunities are some of the ways to get more women into this growing job sector.