KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City Starbucks is now the 11th Missouri location to successfully unionize.
Employees at the 41st and Main location voted 18-13 Friday to join Starbucks Workers United, an affiliate of the Workers United union.
“Now that our store has won the election, I’m hoping things change for the better – things like barista wages, staffing, healthcare, reinstatement of benefits like digital tips and an overall improvement for partner and customer piece of mind,” Starbucks worker Kali Shepard-White said in a release.
Four other Starbucks in the Kansas City area — locations in Overland Park, Independence, Lawrence and Kansas City’s Crown Center — have also unionized recently.
The Starbucks store on the County Club Plaza was one of the first stores in the Kansas City area that tried to unionize, but the vote was a tie, which counts as a loss. The company later closed the location, citing safety concerns.
This Saturday marks the two-year anniversary of a Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York, voting to unionize. It was the first company-owned store to join a union in more than three decades.
Since then, more than 370 locations across 41 states have also unionized.
Just last month, thousands of workers at more than 200 U.S. Starbucks stores walked off the job for the company’s annual Red Cup Day. Organizers said it was the largest strike yet in their effort to unionize.
Starbucks employees are fighting for improved wages, more consistent schedules and more say in issues like store safety and workload.
In November, Starbucks announced it’s increasing pay and benefits for most of its U.S. hourly workers; however, unionized workers won’t be eligible for some of those perks.
Then on Friday, the company said it’s committed to bargaining with its unionized workers and reaching labor agreements next year.