(WTTW News)

The National Labor Relations Board is asking a judge to order Starbucks to reopen 23 shuttered locations around the U.S. – including at Bryn Mawr and Winthrop avenues in Edgewater – claiming the company closed the coffee shops as retaliation for employees unionizing or to hinder their organizing efforts.

(Courtesy of Arise Chicago)

Beginning in 2021, workers at the El Milagro tortilla factories went public with their complaints about working conditions and labor violations, including charges of intimidation, harassment and retaliation.

Howard Brown Health sign. (WTTW News)

The National Labor Relations Board found merit or partial merit in the union’s allegations, which include Howard Brown Health participating in bad faith bargaining, creating the impression of surveillance, failing to provide information and declaring impasse and refusing to bargain over layoffs.

(WTTW News)

The Greektown workers’ announcement comes on the heels of Starbucks workers at Old Orchard Mall in Skokie and the location near Main Street and Chicago Avenue in Evanston voting last month in favor of joining Starbucks Workers United, an SEIU affiliate.

 A Starbucks worker in Edgewater participates in a one-day strike on Aug. 30, 2022. (WTTW News)

Workers at high-profile companies like Amazon and Starbucks have unionized, as have employees at smaller chains and locally-owned firms. Chicago workers have also been part of the wave. Here’s a look at some of the big developments over the past year.

Starbucks sign is pictured in a file photo. (WTTW News)

Starbucks workers at coffee shops in Bucktown, Edgewater, northwest suburban Cary, and west suburban Elmhurst joined a nationwide strike Thursday aimed at coinciding with the coffee giant’s popular “Red Cup Day” promotion, organizers say.

(WTTW News)

The unionization announcement comes one day after Lakeview Starbucks employees voted 11-to-1 in favor of representation, according to voting results shared by organizers. On Monday, Glenview Starbucks workers announced they plan to organize as well.

The Starbucks at Bryn Mawr and Winthrop avenues in Chicago is pictured on Oct. 13, 2022. (WTTW News)

Starbucks is shutting down one of the first Chicago locations where workers unionized – just days before the company was set to begin negotiations on a contract.

Starbucks sign is pictured in a file photo. (WTTW News)

Employees at a Starbucks in west suburban Elmhurst say they’ve filed for union representation, joining hundreds of other coffee shops around the country and in the Chicago area.

 A Starbucks worker in Edgewater participates in a one-day strike on Aug. 30, 2022. (WTTW News)
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House lawmakers heard testimony Wednesday on barriers workers say they face to organizing, and what pro-business groups and Republicans in Congress call Democratic overreach.

(WTTW News)

Workers at a unionized Starbucks coffee shop in Edgewater walked off the job Tuesday, protesting what they say is a pattern of the company illegally disciplining employees as retaliation for organizing. Similar charges have been echoed by pro-union Starbucks workers around the U.S. 

Starbucks sign is pictured in a file photo. (WTTW News)

The workers at the coffee shop, located at the corner of Irving Park Road and Ashland Avenue, are seeking to join the seven other Chicago-area Starbucks locations that have so far voted in favor of unionizing. 

(WTTW News)

The results of the election were released by organizers after a National Labor Relations Board vote count Friday morning. The Devon and Broadway Starbucks joins two others in Edgewater, and one each in Bucktown, Hyde Park, North Park and northwest suburban Cary.

(WTTW News)

Claims against Starbucks include unfairly disciplining employees who backed organizing efforts, threatening retaliation against pro-union workers and forbidding staffers from discussing terms and conditions of their employment.

(WTTW News)

Workers at more than 250 Starbucks locations around the U.S. have filed to join a union, and about 50 have voted in favor of unionization. Organizers and their supporters have accused Starbucks of aggressive “union-busting” tactics, including cutting hours, disciplining, and firing pro-union employees. 

(WTTW News)

Starbucks workers at coffee shops in northwest suburban Cary and downstate Peoria have been voting by mail this month on whether they want to be represented by the Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board of Workers United, an SEIU affiliate.