Another Pittsburgh Starbucks store files to unionize

Baristas at a Starbucks location in Oakland have become the second set of Starbucks workers in Pittsburgh to file to unionize.

On Friday, the workers at the Amos Hall Starbucks on Fifth Avenue in Oakland filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board.

The Amos Hall baristas joined the nationwide push to unionize Starbucks employees that has seen more than 100 stores across the U.S. attempt to unionize, and the successful unionization of a handful of stores in New York and Arizona.

“Pittsburgh has a long standing history of being the epicenter of the labor rights movement. We hope to honor our city’s history by speaking up for what we believe is best for all parties involved,” wrote the Amos Hall Starbucks Organizing Committee in a letter to Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson. “Here at [the Amos Hall store], we take pride in working at Starbucks, we have found life long friends at Starbucks, and we have created meaningful customer relations while working here.”

The committee said it was motivated to unionize due to understaffing and Starbucks allegedly cutting workers’ hours. Starbucks workers are organizing through Workers United Pennsylvania Joint Board, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.

Amos Hall workers join baristas at the Starbucks in Bloomfield, who filed to unionize in February. Pittsburgh also recently saw baristas at Coffee Tree Roasters, a local coffee chain not affiliated with Starbucks, complete a successful vote to unionize with Local 1776 of the United Food and Commercial Workers labor union.