Downtown Providence Starbucks Workers Vote to Unionize

Downtown Providence Starbucks Workers Vote to Unionize

Downtown Providence Starbucks workers have voted to unionize -- making it the first Rhode Island location to do so.

Workers at the 1 Financial store voted unanimously on Monday night to join Starbucks Workers United with a vote of 13-0.

The location was closed on Monday for the vote. 

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The action came after workers filed for an election in November -- and then held a small protest outside of the Starbucks at 1 Financial Plaza in opposition to what employees said is corporate management’s “refusal to bargain."

According to union organizers, "workers continue to organize and take direct action...and are demanding Starbucks end illegal union-busting tactics and bargain in good faith with workers who voted to form a union."

They continued:

"In more than three dozen separate decisions, federal administrative law judges have found that Starbucks has committed more than 300 violations of federal labor law, including 38 unlawful firings, refusing to bargain, and unlawfully providing non-union workers higher wages and better benefits than workers who voted to form a union."