A Starbucks in Hurst is the latest Texas location to unionize.
The store on West Pipeline Road off Loop 820 is the 22nd Starbucks location in Texas to unionize and the second in Tarrant County. A Starbucks in Fort Worth on Boat Club and Robertson Road unionized June 2023.
As of May 27, there are over 1,400 Starbucks in Texas, according to data company ScrapeHero.
Hurst Starbucks location workers voted 11-to-1 on June 14 in favor of the unionization, with all employees turning out.
“I am very excited about the opportunity to work with our union on ways to improve our work environment,” Illyana Morales, a shift supervisor who has worked at the location for three years, said in a press release sent to the Fort Worth Report. “I want to be an example to our district that we can lift each other up.”
The Hurst Starbucks union doesn’t currently have a union leader. Barista Christopher Baltimore said union members will be voting on that soon.
The idea to unionize started in 2023, Baltimore said. The Seattle-based coffee conglomerate rolled out new pay increases and benefits to workers in November, with some of the benefits applying to non-union workers.
Starbucks and the Starbucks Workers United union agreed to begin collective bargaining agreement discussions in February and both parties have continued talks with a recent two-day session in Chicago.
Baltimore said Morales began the process by contacting Workers United. Hurst Starbucks employees celebrated filing for a union election on June 10.
“Over time, it just took one more match to ignite it, and thank God for Illyana (Morales) who was the one who reached out,” Baltimore said.
The Starbucks unionization movement began in August 2021, when several Starbucks workers in Buffalo created Workers United. Since then, over 440 locations have unionized.
Ismael M. Belkoura is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at ismael.belkoura@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
