Starbucks workers vote to unionize at the 500th store in the U.S.

The Starbucks Workers United union announced that it has organized and won union approval at its 500 Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) stores in the U.S. A vote at a Starbucks (SBUX) location in Bellingham, Washington put the union over the milestone. As of July 1, there were 16,621 Starbucks stores in the United States, which means 97% of the stores have not voted to unionize.

“Starbucks partners have boldly demanded a voice on the job and with it, strong contracts that ensure respect, living wages, racial and gender equity, fair scheduling and more,” noted Workers United President Lynne Fox.

Earlier this year, Starbucks (SBUX) representatives and Workers United met in Dallas, Texas to continue advancing the framework intended to be the foundation of each single-store contract. The union said the two days of negotiations advanced non-economic measures within that framework. New Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Brian Niccol has said that the Seattle-based company is committed to bargaining in good faith with the union as the two sides work on a labor contract.

Shares of Starbucks (SBUX) are up 1.5% on a year-to-date basis after seeing a boost from the hiring of Brian Niccol to run the company. Starbucks (SBUX) is expected to release its FQ4 earnings report during the last week of October.