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The Mesa store at Powerline and Baseline Roads became the first U.S. company-run store outside Buffalo to be unionized in the recent organizing wave.

The liberal workers the company has long attracted are expanding a union campaign to other cities after a landmark victory in Buffalo.

Given that Starbucks would go to such lengths to stop just a handful of stores from joining a union, it’s no surprise that it took 50 years after its founding for a single café to unionize. And it’s no wonder it's seen as a groundbreaking event.

At 68%, support for unions is at its highest level since 1965. Most Americans think union decline has hurt working people. Can public support buoy union organizing drives?

The workers in upstate New York are confident that come Thursday, they will have the first unionized Starbucks out of almost 9,000 in the United States.