Starbucks employees at New Orleans store are first in Louisiana to vote to unionize

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Employees at a Starbucks store in New Orleans voted on Saturday to become the first unionized branch of the Seattle-based coffee retailer in the state of Louisiana, according to Billie Nyx, the head organizer of the union campaign.

Nyx said that, of the 15 eligible voters, 14 voted. Two votes were contested but 11 voted to unionize with one vote opposed, making the final vote 11 to 1 in favor of the union. The store is located at 7700 Maple Street.

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Nyx and co-workers are pushing for changes at the store because they say it’s frequently understaffed and offers insufficient wages or sick time. According to some counts, the store in New Orleans will be the 102nd unionized Starbucks store, after a wave of union elections across the country, starting with a successful December vote at a Starbucks in Buffalo, which became the nation’s first unionized Starbucks store.

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Nyx, a former employee, was fired for closing the store three hours early in May during Jazz Fest, saying that it was understaffed. The company said the closing had been against the wishes of the store's manager and Nyx had been "insubordinate and rude" to the manager on the phone when discussing the early closing.

Nyx says the firing was motivated by the union organizing and that the store had been closed in line with recent practice at other Starbucks outlets in the region because of staff shortages.

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