"Starbucks argues workers lack right to unionize at store level," 23 Sept. 2021

Starbucks workers shouldn’t have the right to vote for a union on a cafe-by-cafe basis, the coffee chain told the U.S. labor board amid efforts by workers in Buffalo, New York, to organize.

... [H]earing officer, Thomas Miller, said that bargaining units composed of the employees at a single location “are presumptively appropriate” under labor-board precedent, so the burden will be on Starbucks to prove why that shouldn’t be the case in Buffalo.

... Starbucks is pushing for a marketwide vote because it wants to be inclusive, said Reggie Borges, a spokesman for the company. He said that workers often pick up shifts at different locations within regions, so any one store’s action would affect others. “It wouldn’t be fair to the partners in this market to not have a voice in whether to unionize or not,” he said. He added that the company’s position was “consistent with” a letter Starbucks Workers United sent to Starbucks before filing for elections, which said that the union’s “organizing committee includes Starbucks partners from across the Buffalo region.”