4 more Starbucks in the Boston area vote to unionize

Workers at four more Starbucks locations in the Boston area have voted to form unions.

That brings the total to six unionized stores in Massachusetts.

The latest to unionize include three Starbucks in Boston and one in Watertown. Emily Malterre, a barista and organizer at the Boston store located at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said conditions in the store played a role in her support for the union.

“We’ve had some days where the store is really cold or we’ve been really understaffed” said Malterre. “And so I think [we’ll] definitely be looking to have some more protections in place for those kinds of days to make sure that partners have a safe and healthy workplace and are fairly compensated for the work and the work beyond what our job description is that we do.”

The votes came weeks after a locations in Allston and Brookline became the first two stores of the chain to unionize in the state.

Adrianna Ross, a barista at the company’s Watertown location on Mt. Auburn Street, said when those two stores filed petitions to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board, it gave her and her co-workers, “the fire we needed to get it started at our store.”

“It still hasn’t really hit me yet that I’m going to be going into work Thursday morning to a unionized store,” said Ross.

A Starbucks spokesperson said the company is “always listening and learning” from employees. The spokesperson went on to say the company respects its employees' right to organize and is committed to following the NLRB process.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the location of one of the unionizing stores. It is in Boston, not Brookline. The story has been updated. We regret the error.