Starbucks store in San Francisco's Sunset District is latest to unionize

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Starbucks Workers United celebrates the 9th Ave. and Irving St. locations vote to unionize.

SAN FRANCISCO - Calling it a landslide win, union representatives say a Starbucks in San Francisco's Sunset District unionized on Friday.

Union representatives said employees voted 13 to five for the 9th Avenue and Irving Street store to join the union.

SEIU Local 1021 along with Starbucks Workers United issued a statement on Friday saying a few weeks ago, workers held a ‘sip-in’ as a form of protest. "A manager asked one of our partners (employees) if the union was strong. Today, the partners answered back. The answer is ‘Yes!' The union is really strong," the union statement read.

The Sunset Starbucks location had filed a petition last month with the National Labor Relations Board to join the union. At the time, workers at the corporate-coffee giant, said they were seeking consistent scheduling, adequate pay and better communication from management.

This is the second Starbucks store to unionize after a Castro location did so in August of last year.

Despite these union victories, union representatives said Starbucks is responsible for a "union-busting campaign" that threatens workers' access to benefits and that as many as 230 union leaders across the country have been fired. In addition, union reps said Starbucks has outright shuttered stores that have unionized.

KTVU has reached out to a Starbucks representative for their response. We will update this story if we hear back.

Union reps said since December 2021, more than 350 Starbucks stores in the U.S. have unionized.