Workers at 3 more Buffalo-area stores file for union elections

One day before ballots were scheduled to go out to workers at three Buffalo, N.y.-area Starbucks in a vote on unionization, workers at three other stores in the area filed petitions with federal regulators Tuesday requesting elections as well.

None of the nearly 9,000 corporate-owned Starbucks stores in the United States is unionized.

On Monday, Starbucks filed a motion to stay the mailing of ballots while it appeals a ruling by a regional official of the National Labor Relations Board setting up separate votes at the three locations where workers initially filed for elections. The company wants all of the roughly 20 Buffalo-area stores to vote in a single election, an approach that typically favors employers.

The first three stores filed for union elections in late August, and Starbucks dispatched managers and more senior company officials from out-of-state in the weeks that followed in what it said was an effort to fix operational issues.

The union has complained that the out-oftown officials are unlawfully intimidating and surveilling workers and filed an unfair labor practice charge last week. The union also contends that Starbucks transferred in or hired a number of additional employees at two of the three stores to dilute union support. Starbucks has said the additional workers are needed to deal with staffing shortages.

The union is seeking elections at each location on Nov. 30. Starbucks maintains that because employees can work at multiple locations and because it largely manages stores in a single area as a group there should be a single election.