Workers at the McCarran & Lakeside Starbucks have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to unionize with Starbucks Workers United.

A Union representative says this will be the first unionized Starbucks location in Reno, and the fifth in Nevada. They were joined by other baristas announcing they too are seeking union elections at 21 Starbucks stores in 14 states

Workers from the 21 stores co-authored a letter to Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan to announce their massive organizing push.

“Across the country management is cutting hours, writing inconsistent and unreliable schedules, and placing more and more work on fewer and fewer partners,” the workers wrote. “We ‘partners’ demand a say. We are the face of Starbucks. As employees, we deserve the same respect and dignity as the CEO.”

Starbucks released this statement: 

While we believe our direct relationship as partners is core to our culture and our continued improvements to the partner experience, we respect the rights of partners to organize and reaffirm our aim to negotiate first contracts for represented stores this year. We encourage all partners at stores petitioning for representation to get the facts, make an informed choice and ensure their voice is heard by voting in neutral, secret-ballot elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. Our aim will be to ensure the process is fair and our partners’ voices are heard.

Additionally, we know a core piece of a positive partner experience is consistent scheduling and predictable hours, and we’ve continued to work to build weekly schedules that reflect our partners’ preferred hours and support expected customer demand. As such, Starbucks has invested more than 20% of the Company’s 2023 profits back into our partners and stores through wages, training and equipment. Continued efforts like these have helped the company improve average hours per U.S. partner by 5% and increase total hourly compensation for U.S. partners by nearly 50% since fiscal year 2020.

U.S. polls show growing enthusiasm for unions. In August, a Gallup poll said 67% of Americans approve of labor unions. That approval has seen a steady rise since 2009, when just 48% of Americans approved of unions, Gallup said.

The National Labor Relations Board reported 2,594 filings for union representation in its 2023 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. That was up 3% from 2022, and the highest number of filings since the 2015 fiscal year.

But unionizing a workplace in the U.S. can be a long and arduous process if the employer doesn't support the union. Over the last two years, Starbucks workers have voted to unionize at 370 U.S. stores, but they haven't yet negotiated a labor agreement with Starbucks.

Fights over unionization can also drag on for years in courts. The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear an appeal filed by Starbucks in a dispute with the National Labor Relations Board over union organizers who were fired nearly two years ago from a Starbucks store in Memphis, Tennessee.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)