Starbucks Pike Place Market unionizing. about time!

Workers at the Starbucks coffeehouse in Seattle’s famous Pike Place Market are planning to join a union.

The location’s baristas filed for their union election on April 3, according to Starbucks Workers United, the union already representing thousands of store employees.

“Our store management has gotten worse and failed to uphold promises to our partners,” Nailah Diaz, a barista at the Pike Place Market location, said in a statement Monday. “We are facing unfair treatment and operational issues without the support needed to succeed.”

Those pressures pushed the employees to organize, Diaz said.

“Filing a petition is simply the start of a process,” Starbucks spokesperson Kati Stadum said Monday in response to the news.

Starbucks and the union returned to the bargaining table this month for the first time this year, according to Workers United.

Employee asks include an hourly minimum wage of $17 and a commitment to keeping three employees “on the floor at all times.”

However, following the meeting, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board on April 8, for “bargaining in bad faith,” according to a copy of the form obtained by The Seattle Times.

“Starbucks has returned to the bargaining table, but its behavior hasn’t improved,” a Workers United spokesperson said Monday. “We filed a ULP over the company’s attempt to illegally withdraw from seven signed tentative agreements previously achieved through months of bargaining.”

The coffee giant has also filed an unfair labor practice charge against the union tied to its alleged cold shoulder during bargaining.

Separately, Starbucks scored a win in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Friday when it quashed an order by the National Labor Relations Board because the federal agency used the incorrect legal approach to scrutinize an unfair labor practice complaint.

Starbucks is changing under CEO Brian Niccol, whose Back to Starbucks plan puts the focus on the coffeehouse experience.

Stadum highlighted the company’s recent announcement of its new incentive rewards program for hourly coffeehouse employees, which entails potential $300 quarterly bonuses and tipping alternatives.

“These updates will roll out to non-union stores later this year and, as required by law, are subject to bargaining for the approximately 5% of U.S. stores represented by a union,” Stadum said in a statement.

For nonunionized stores, the new policy will take effect in July.

Still, Starbucks and the union have had a combative relationship.

Nationwide, over 200 coffeehouses went on strike in November, with workers pushing for more hours, increased take-home pay and the resolution of labor law violations. The majority of the striking employees were back at work in December.

As part of Niccol’s restructuring plans, stores have shuttered over the past six months: five in Seattle this year, on top of more than 30 across Washington in 2025. Last year, hundreds of stores across the continent were impacted by the onslaught of closures.

Local employees also felt the hurt of layoffs: 974 employees — both retail and nonretail workers — lost their jobs in Seattle and Kent last year. Statewide store closures led to the layoffs of 369 retail employees after a separate round in February 2025, in which 1,100 corporate employees were laid off.

Washingtonians are dubious about the company’s future in its hometown of Seattle, given the recent news about its southern expansion, with a lease signed March 3 for a 250,000-square-foot office in Nashville, Tenn.

However, Starbucks has maintained that there are no plans to move its headquarters out of Seattle.

Through it all, the Pike Place coffeehouse survived the cull.

It’s often confused for the brand’s first location. The original Starbucks store opened in 1971 at the nearby Rhode Island building, 2000 Western Ave., which was demolished five years later. That’s when Starbucks switched storefronts to its current home, 1912 Pike Place.

While it’s not the company’s original coffeehouse, it is its oldest outpost.

There, baristas are forging a new path forward.

“The best way to protect ourselves and build a better future is through collective power,” Diaz said. “With immense care for our store and those who make it special, we’re choosing to stand together, joining baristas in Seattle and beyond, to fight for a more secure future.”

Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton: 206-652-6373 or [mboyanton@seattletimes.com](mailto:mboyanton@seattletimes.com). Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton is a business reporter at The Seattle Times.