Baristas at “original” Starbucks announce intent to unionize

Baristas and shift supervisors at the Pike Place Market location penned a letter to the Starbucks CEO detailing their reasons for organizing

SEATTLE, WA (April 6, 2026) — More baristas in Starbucks’ hometown are organizing to join Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), with the workers at what’s commonly referred to as the “original” cafe announcing on Friday their intent to unionize. If their campaign is successful, they’ll join the numbers of union baristas at dozens of Starbucks stores in Washington state and nearly 700 cafes nationwide.

Workers at the popular location in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market announced their intent to organize in a letter to Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol.

“As partners of the first Starbucks, we’ve decided to form a union to uphold the core values of our company and the Pike Place Market: fair and equal treatment, respect, and dignity for every single partner who makes this store so special,” wrote the workers. “Thousands of partners around the country are working together to fight for a better workplace, and we look forward to joining them. Starbucks as a company was built on the core pillars of belonging, courage, and joy. Sadly, under your leadership – in our store and so many others – Starbucks has lost its way and veered from the core values that defined us.”

Starbucks’ corporate headquarters in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood.

Under Niccol’s tenure, Starbucks workers have seen the company’s posture grow increasingly anti-union. Starbucks Workers United has filed hundreds of unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against the company, with many sustained by the National Labor Relations Board, earning Starbucks the dubious distinction of biggest union-buster in modern history, per the union. To date, more than 600 ULPs remain unresolved.

Many Starbucks workers across the U.S. participated in a ULP strike in recent months, walking off the job in November of 2025. In March, SBWU announced they had successfully pressured the company to return to the bargaining table, laying out updated contract terms that they would be urging management to accept (the union is urging the public to continue boycotting Starbucks until a contract deal is reached). Those terms include raising the wage floor (currently between $15.25-16/hr in 43 states), minimum staffing standards, and annual wages of 4%. Workers are also demanding grievance procedures, just cause protections, an end to Starbucks’ anti-union and anti-worker practices, and resolution of outstanding ULPs.

SBWU estimates that a contract with these terms would cost Starbucks no more than an average day’s sales.

As the workers at the first Starbucks organize towards an election, they’re affirming their commitment to the core values of unity and dignity in work that underpin the labor movement.

“The path to our union may be challenging, but we know this: We are better working together as a team, we have each others’ backs, and we respect everyone’s right to make their own choice,” wrote the workers. “We call on Starbucks to live up to the core values of courage, joy, and belonging, as well as the market’s founding values, and let partners make their own decision free of intimidation and surveillance.”

“Let us be clear,” workers continued. “We are forming a union because we care deeply about every single one of our coworkers, and believe that everyone deserves to have what they need to thrive at work.”

Starbucks Workers United also announced a union victory on Friday. Workers at a location in Greeley, Colorado — a town home to the first meatpackers’ strike in a generation — won their union on a 15-1 vote.