Brookline Village Starbucks baristas vote 6-1 to unionize

Brookline Village baristas voted 6-1 to unionize, making the store the 24th unionized Starbucks location in Massachusetts and adding another marker to the organizing map that has spread across the state. For workers in nearby nonunion stores, the result is the kind of local win that can quickly become a workplace reference point: a small crew, a short ballot, and a formal voice on the job.

The vote came as Starbucks Workers United continues to build on the first successful U.S. Starbucks union election in Buffalo in December 2021. The union says it now represents more than 12,000 workers at more than 700 stores nationwide, a scale that shows how a single store vote in Brookline Village fits into a much larger campaign. A Starbucks Workers United-affiliated source said the 700-store mark was crossed in May 2026.

Meg Franchock, one of the baristas tied to the Brookline Village effort, cast the win as a collective act of protection and advocacy. That kind of framing has defined the Starbucks campaign for years, with workers repeatedly pointing to staffing, predictability, safety, pay and daily control over the work as the issues that push them toward an election rather than another round of informal complaints.

The Massachusetts tally has been building for some time. Workers at a Somerville Starbucks took steps to unionize in February 2023, and in July 2025 baristas at the Brighton Soldiers Field Starbucks voted 9-0 to unionize, a result that was then described as the 22nd unionized Starbucks location in Massachusetts and the 18th in the Boston area. Brookline Village’s 6-1 margin lifts the statewide count to 24 and shows the campaign has not stalled in Greater Boston.

The Brookline vote also lands against a changing store footprint. In September 2025, two Brookline Starbucks locations were set to close as part of Starbucks’ wider restructuring, one that would shutter hundreds of stores and more than 20 in Massachusetts. For baristas and shift supervisors still on the floor, the message is hard to miss: the company is reshaping its retail base even as organizing continues in the stores that remain open.

The contract fight has not been resolved. Starbucks Workers United says it is still seeking a fair first contract, and CNBC reported in March 2026 that the union sent Starbucks a proposed agreement seeking 4% annual raises and stronger workplace protections. Brookline Village’s vote adds one more store to that bargaining campaign, and one more sign that the next round of pressure is coming from the shop floor, not corporate headquarters.