Seattle Starbucks workers organizing to unionize their workplaces won a victory February 8 when the Seattle City Council voted unanimously to express solidarity with them.

"Today's YES vote by the City Council on this resolution from my office makes Seattle the first city to demand that Starbucks corporate executives and billionaires stop their shameful union busting, intimidation, and firings of courageous workers, and accept majority union votes at their stores," Councilmember Kshama Sawant said in a statement released after the vote.

The actual vote was 7-2, with more conservative councilmembers Sara Nelson and Alex Pedersen abstaining, after publicly questioning the propriety of taking sides in a labor dispute.

"I was not elected to take votes on issues that fall beyond the purview of city business. And I believe that a vote on [Sawant's resolution] would be just merely symbolic," Nelson said. "This is an external labor issue, and we have no authority [over] Starbucks and its employees."

The resolution comes at a time when the Starbucks corporation is playing hardball with workers across the country trying to unionize their stores.

In Minneapolis, the company fired several workers who are members of the local union organizing committee. In Seattle, Starbucks is using so-called "captive audience" meetings, where workers are required to attend sessions in which company representatives make anti-union presentations.

"We are dealing with meetings and intimidation; I personally have received a final written warning for union activity, and they will continue to escalate," Sydney Durkin, a worker at the Broadway and Denny Starbucks told the City Council.

"[Starbucks] is trying to push the envelope of what they can get away with in their union busting, and they will continue to do this unless there is intense public outcry...

"The more solidarity we have, the more community support we have, the better fighting chance we have in this fight against those who seek to destroy what we are fighting for."

Gianna Reeve, one of the Buffalo Starbucks workers who kicked off the wave of union activity, also spoke to the Council.

"We need to stand together," she said. "We cannot do this divided...

"We need to be here to demand this resolution. [Starbucks] will do exactly what they did in Buffalo, where they are closing stores, threatening partner benefits – they will do this anywhere. They take pride in Seattle being their hometown, but they will absolutely rake their partners through the mud unless we tell them NO. So let's do it. We cannot stand for this anymore."

In addition to Starbucks workers from other cities, Seattle workers were supported by speakers from a number of local unions: PROTEC17, UAW 4121, WFSE 1488, CWA 7800, and the Bookworkers Union.

The Starbucks workers are organizing under the auspices of Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the country's largest unions.