Results released after union vote at Starbucks in Sehome

Workers at the Sehome Village shopping center have voted to unionize, making it the specialty coffee giant’s third Bellingham location to organize and bargain collectively.

Workers voted 15-6 to be represented by Starbucks Workers United, said Gwen Williamson, a shift supervisor at the Sehome location.

“It feels good to finally have it done” after an organizing effort that started in late summer, WIlliamson told The Bellingham Herald.

“It’s the vast majority of people who voted in favor,” she said.

“We’re excited to work together and collectively negotiate for better conditions,” Williamson said.

Starbucks Workers United now represents more than 250 stores across the U.S., after a recent push to unionize.

The National Labor Relations Board conducted the election, Williamson said.

Shannon Butler, a barista at the Starbucks location at Iowa and King streets — another union shop — told The Herald that she’s looking forward to standing in solidarity with Sehome employees.

“I’m super excited that we have another Bellingham store join the movement and I hope that it only grows from here. We have strength in numbers and I’m sure we will act in solidarity with one another in the near future,” Butler said in an email.

Butler was one of several local Starbucks workers who organized a Nov. 17 job action on Red Cup Day, a nationwide holiday promotion.

They picketed the Sehome VIllage, Iowa-King and Cordata stores to publicize their union efforts and were joined by members of other labor unions, representing firefighters, health care and supermarket workers and others.

Butler told The Herald that company officials have walked away from contract talks and have refused demands to hire more employees that would ease their fast-paced working conditions.

Employees are expected to process a drive-through customer’s drink order in 45 seconds or less, Butler said in November.

“We’re running with just not enough people on the floor,” she said.