A union wave continues to roll across western Massachusetts.
On Jan. 30, workers at two Starbucks locations in Westfield and Northampton announced that they were forming a union. They’re seeking to become the first western Mass Starbucks workers to unionize with Starbucks Workers United — a union of more than 10,500 that first formed in 2021.
“I’m really excited to be joining something that has so much power behind it,” said Ethan White, a barista trainer at the Westfield location.
The workers’ announcement comes after a big year of union organizing in the 413.
More workers in the region unionized in 2024 than in any previous year since at least 2019, according to federal data. Union election results from the National Labor Relations Board show that at least 593 western Mass workers voted to join unions last year in a range of industries — everywhere from a cannabis dispensary in Whatley to the transgender health-care center Transhealth in Northampton. More than 200 of those were employees of Smith College: from student-workers in the dining halls and residential buildings to early childhood educators.
Those NLRB figures, however, don’t include public-sector workers who unionized through the state’s Department of Labor Relations-run process. They also don’t include those who unionized through Massachusetts’ “card check” that is available to agricultural workers, for example.
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White said that the Northampton and Westfield Starbucks workers are looking to unionize in order to address everything from staffing to pay.
“We do not get paid a liveable wage for the work we do for this billion-dollar company and that’s, first off, just not acceptable,” he said.
White said that the Westfield store spent months failing to hire a manager, leaving the rest of the staff running the store themselves.
“The company just made it very clear they didn’t care about us,” he said.
In a statement, a Starbucks spokesperson said that the company’s success “starts and ends” with its employees, who it refers to as “partners.”
“We respect our partners’ right to choose, through a fair and democratic process, to be represented by a union or not to be represented by a union, and will continue to work together to make Starbucks the best job in retail,” the statement said.
White said that already, however, Starbucks has begun putting up fliers in the stores with anti-union talking points ahead of a federal union election for the workers.
White said community members can show their support by watching social media to find out when workers will be organizing “sip-ins” at the Northampton and Easthampton locations.
“Just come in, voice your support, and let the managers and partners know that we’re not alone in this fight,” he said.
Starbucks has fought an aggressive campaign against its workers’ union efforts, going so far as to join other companies like Trader Joe’s, SpaceX, and Amazon in challenging the constitutionality of the NLRB and its labor protections. Those companies now have an ally in newly inaugurated President Donald Trump. His recent firing of two NLRB leaders has left the body unable to function and could further the likely legal battle over the agency’s constitutionality — a case that may land before the U.S. Supreme Court.
But workers are continuing to organize nationwide in the face of those challenges. White said that he hopes other local Starbucks workers will join the unionization movement after seeing what their organized colleagues at other stores are fighting for and winning.
“Eventually it will be so many stores and so many partners that the company really can’t say no to us,” White said.
Dusty Christensen is The Shoestring's investigative editor. Based in western Massachusetts, his award-winning investigative reporting has appeared in newspapers and on radio stations across the region. He has reported for outlets including The Nation magazine, NPR, Haaretz, The Boston Globe, The Appeal, In These Times, and PBS. He's currently teaching journalism to future muckrackers at both the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Smith College. Send story tips to: dusty.christensen@protonmail.com.
