Baristas at one of the oldest Starbucks (SBUX) cafe in Seattle voted in favor of the union representation on Tuesday, the first vote count since CEO Kevin Johnson resigned last week.
The cafe located on Broadway and Denny is one of dozens inspired by Buffalo's vote, which became the center point of the unionization effort last year after the coffee giant strongly opposed those efforts in Upstate New York.
After the eligible vote count, 9 votes were counted in favor (though one vote was challenged by Starbucks, due to employee no longer part of the bargaining unit) while there were no votes opposing.
"Here in Seattle, we have Starbucks headquarters like six blocks or something [away]," Rachel Ybarra, a barista at the store, said in a press conference following the vote count. "It's very close to our store and Howard Schultz also lives in our district. It's really cool to see that we were able to make a statement. We were able to show Starbucks that like, this is a nationwide issue and that we're all gonna a stand for each other."
The ballots will need to be certified by the the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) regional director, which may take a week.
Starbucks has continuously argued that a single store should not be allowed to hold a vote. Instead, the company argues, a vote should include all the locations in that store’s assigned district. The NLRB recently denied that argument.
Starbucks Workers United union (SWU), a group advocating for its workers seeking unionization, now represents baristas at six Starbucks cafes across the country. To date, more than 150 stores in 27 states have petitioned with the NLRB to union, according to organizers.
The number of stores officially considering unionization is still a small fraction of Starbucks' nearly 9,000 U.S. locations, which employ nearly 230,000 workers also known as partners. Additionally, about 3,500 of the chain's licensed U.S. stores are unionized — which include those at hotels, grocery stores and travel plazas.
That said, activity is heating up: Last week, the federal labor board found that the company had taken illegal moves in its fight against the union. In a formal complaint, the labor board that company had fired one worker in Arizona while suspending another for their union organizing activity.
Starbucks Corporation's longtime former Chief Executive officer Howard Schultz will be back in the C-suite and lead the company for the third time as he takes over as interim CEO. It's unclear how Schultz will handle the labor movement within the company.
Sydney Durkin, a shift supervisor and organizing committee member, told the press conference that "these are completely different circumstances, a completely different set of workers, and we're not going to give up and we're not going to give in on each other. And I think that if he's gonna come in expecting his old tactics to work, he's going to find a whole new reality. That is extremely different."
Starbucks shares were up to $87.89 at the closing bell on Tuesday, with the stock down 24.9% year-to-date.
Correction: A previous version of this post stated that the union vote occurred at the original cafe, which is incorrect. We regret the error.
Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @daniromerotv
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