Starbucks store in Mesa, Arizona, becomes third in the country to unionize!

Mesa, Arizona – A Starbucks store in Mesa, Arizona, has become the third location in the country to unionize!

Starbucks workers in Mesa, Arizona, celebrate their successful union election ballot count.
Starbucks workers in Mesa, Arizona, celebrate their successful union election ballot count.  © Screenshot/Twitter/SBWorkersUnited

Starbucks workers in Mesa definitively won their union election when ballots were counted on Friday.

The 25-3 vote left no doubt where employees stand after a long-fought battle with the company.

The ballots were originally supposed to be counted a week ago, but the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) delayed the tally after it failed to reach a decision on Starbucks' request for review.

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Though slightly delayed, the victory was no less sweet when it finally came.

"The way that we smoked them with how many we got – yeses – that really shows that this is really a movement for people and we just want what is kind of an inalienable right for people," said local shift supervisor Liz Alanna, according to the Associated Press.

"It feels good what we were fighting for, everybody wanted."

Baristas are hoping that having a union will help them finally achieve key changes in the workplace. Tyler Ralston, another shift supervisor, said, "We would like to be able to not feel understaffed. We would like to have better working conditions, having things fixed on time. A pension of course would be a great thing."

Current workers weren't the only ones to celebrate the decision. A former store manager named Brittany, who was fired after whistleblowing on Starbucks' union-busting tactics, said in a video shared by More Perfect Union, "I am just so proud of all of you. I never had any doubts that we could do it. It's so surreal that it happened, and I'm just so proud of you."

The Starbucks unionization wave keeps rolling. With 107 stores in 26 states filing union election petitions, there is no sign that it is slowing down anytime soon.

Cover photo: Screenshot/Twitter/SBWorkersUnited

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