OAK CREEK, Wis. — A Starbucks in Oak Creek is the first Starbucks in Wisconsin to unionize after workers voted 15-8 on Wednesday.
Starbucks workers from the Howell Avenue location gathered as the National Labor Relations Board counted their ballots in a union representation election.
The workers elected Workers United International Union as their representative in the workplace.
The baristas are the first in Wisconsin to join the Starbucks Workers United movement, according to a statement from Workers United CMRJB.
In February, hourly employees at the location on Howell Avenue demanded union recognition from CEO Kevin Johnson and local management.
The letter to CEO Johnson read, "Wisconsin has a rich and complex history in the American labor movement despite former Governor Scott Walker’s historic attack on our state’s unions. We are proudly standing together 11 years later both as Starbucks partners and Wisconsinites to speak up for what we believe in as a store and as a state.”
After hearing about the demand for union recognition, the President of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council issued a statement showing her support.
"My message to Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson is this: Keep your union-busting and anti-worker intimidation out of Wisconsin. In our state, we have each other's backs, we are union proud, and we are going to be fighting alongside our union siblings at Starbucks in Oak Creek until justice is won, and they have secured their first union contract.”
This comes after Milwaukee-based Colectivo Coffee workers voted to unionize with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers last August.
