Pittsburgh Starbucks Vote Brings 19th Union Win Led by Cas Borowitz

Local reporting on March 3, 2026 confirmed that workers at several Pittsburgh-area Starbucks voted to be represented by Starbucks Workers United, the SEIU-affiliated union, and organizers identify the Bethel Park victory as the 19th unionized location in the Pittsburgh area with Cas Borowitz playing a role in the campaign.

When Cas Borowitz started as a Starbucks worker in Philadelphia, she said she received almost no training and watched a supportive colleague endure retaliation and transfer to another store after confronting a manager. Borowitz got involved in the union, Starbucks Workers United, and today serves as a part-time organizer while working as a shift supervisor at a Starbucks location in Pittsburgh; a portrait of Borowitz was taken in her apartment in the South Side on Feb. 7.

The local wins come against a backdrop of prior NLRB activity in Pittsburgh. In 2022, the NLRB, with a Democratic, pro-union majority, ordered Starbucks to reinstate four Pittsburgh-area baristas who supported the unionization effort. Federal election records tied to Pittsburgh from mid-2022 list several district cases: RC Pittsburgh PA 06/30/2022 17 6 8 Workers United a/w SEIU Directed WON 08/03/2022 Certific. of Representative 06 06-RC-296680 Starbucks Corporation; RC Pittsburgh PA 07/11/2022 42 4 16 Workers United Directed WON 08/11/2022 Certific. of Representative 06 06-RC-298405; and RC Pittsburgh PA 07/26/2022 18 6 4 Workers United Directed LOSS 08/03/2022 Certification of Results 06 06-RC-296143. Those NLRB docket entries show election dates, the triplet numbers as recorded, and certification actions in August 2022.

The Pittsburgh developments mirror a sustained national campaign. NLRB Edge analysis shows SEIU won 125 Starbucks union elections in 2025, an 82 percent win rate for those contests, and tallies the total number of Starbucks elections won at 667, representing approximately 14,500 workers in Starbucks bargaining units. Across all Starbucks elections, 72 percent of voters favored unionizing, NLRB Edge reports. The analysis also notes 204 unfair labor practice charges filed against Starbucks in 2025 and 13 Administrative Law Judge decisions issued in cases brought against Starbucks that year, and states that the company has yet to sign a single collective bargaining agreement.

Organizers and legal analysts point to institutional friction ahead. That’s the type of decision that could be stalled in the Trump era, according to the legal analysis site NLRB Edge, because without a quorum, the NLRB can’t rule on requests for appeal. Even if one of the NLRB’s administrative law judges rules against a company such as Starbucks, the company could appeal that decision to the board where it could languish indefinitely due to the lack of seated board members.

The new Pittsburgh votes add to the local tally and to a national total built since the first Buffalo store voted to form a union in 2021, “igniting a major push to organize” Starbucks locations across the country. For Pittsburgh baristas and organizers like Borowitz, the work continues amid ongoing elections, NLRB rulings, and an unresolved push toward first contracts.