In December 2021, workers at a Starbucks location in Buffalo, New York voted to form a labor union, making it the first unionized Starbucks in the United States. In 2022, workers at many other Starbucks locations also began holding union elections. By December 2022, more than 270 stores, including several stores in Seattle, had successfully voted to unionize and join Starbucks Workers United. According to National Labor Relations Board complaints and a lawsuit filed in December 2022, Starbucks broke the law in efforts to suppress the unionization effort through tactics like retaliating against workers advocating for the union and delaying negotiations with unionized stores. Starbucks Workers United has also protested the closure of unionized stores, although the company contends the closures are for safety reasons. As of January 2023, four unionized Starbuck stores in Seattle have closed, including the first unionized store, at Broadway and Denny on Capitol Hill.

This is a poster designed by Melanie Amaral for Seattle DSA’s (Democratic Socialists of America) Starbucks Solidarity campaign to support Starbucks’ workers effort to unionize. The Starbucks Solidarity campaign includes rallies, a solidarity fund to support workers whose hours are cut or who are fired, and poster campaigns featuring posters such as this. This poster includes a modified version of Starbucks’ mermaid logo, as well as calls for solidarity with workers and a petition to Starbucks to cease its union busting activities.

Caption information source: “NLRB: Starbucks broke law on union talks,” by Renata Geraldo, Seattle Times, December 29, 2022, page 11
Caption information source: “Starbuck illegally terminated union leader,” by Josh Eidelson, Seattle Times web edition, December 30, 2022
Caption information source: “Starbucks closing Capitol Hill store, the first union location in Seattle,” by Diana Opong, KUOW, retrieved from https://www.kuow.org/stories/starbucks-closing-capitol-hill-store-the-first-union-location-in-seattle