The store would be the sixth unionized location in the Bay Area.

Today, workers at the Alameda & Julian Starbucks in San Jose, CA, filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to unionize with Starbucks Workers United. The Alameda & Julian partners (employees) are joining a nationwide movement of hundreds of stores and thousands of baristas organizing for better working conditions.

Workers sent a letter to Starbucks Interim CEO Howard Schultz to announce their organizing campaign. In the letter, workers explained that they are organizing as “our concerns go unheard, and are disregarded too quickly, jeopardizing our safety at work and our ability to effectively carry out the Starbucks mission.”

“Here at the Alameda and Julian, we know the importance of our dignity and our rights as workers. We stand together in this fight for our protection, as well. In organizing, we are making our voices heard, and together we can create a fair, safe workplace where we will all thrive,” said Nora Smith, a partner and organizer at the San Jose location.

Starbucks has launched a ruthless union-busting campaign that includes firing over 200 union leaders across the country and shuttering union stores. At least eleven union leaders in the Golden State have been fired in retaliation for their organizing activity, and more have been forced out of the Company. 

The NLRB has issued 80 official Complaints against the Company, encompassing over 1,400 violations of federal labor law.

Starbucks Workers United is the union drive that has taken the labor movement by storm, with more new unions formed in 12 months than any US company in the last 20 years. There are now over 290 Starbucks stores in 42 states and the District of Columbia that have successfully unionized.