A Second Atlanta Starbucks Is Now Unionized

Another Starbucks coffee shop in the city of Atlanta is now unionized.

On Wednesday, June 22, non-management employees at the Ansley Mall Starbucks in the Piedmont Heights neighborhood voted 11-3 in favor of unionizing. The vote comes just two weeks after a Starbucks on Howell Mill Road became the first location of the Seattle-based coffee chain to unionize in the city.

The Ansley Mall shop makes the third unionized location of Starbucks in Georgia. An Augusta Starbucks was the first location in the state to unionize back in April. A petition to form a union was also filed at a Starbucks in the city of Covington, just east of Atlanta.

To date, over 100 Starbucks locations across multiple states have voted to unionize non-management employees, with petitions filed at more than 250 locations around the country to begin the unionizing process in order to fight for better pay and other benefits.

Voting is overseen and administered by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and requires locations to unionize individually.

The nationwide effort by Starbucks employees to unionize began at the end of 2021. Two shops in Buffalo, New York, unionized under Workers United, the labor union currently representing Starbucks employees.

In response to the ongoing unionizing efforts, Starbucks corporate promised to raise wages, something that is likely not to occur for employees working at unionized coffee shops. Some Starbucks union organizers say this is a veiled threat by the company to discourage other employees from proceeding with a vote.