Workers at an Encinitas Starbucks location have filed a petition to unionize, Starbucks Workers United announced April 13.

The petition to the National Labor Relations Board was filed by workers at the Starbucks located at Leucadia Boulevard and Interstate 5, according to a Starbucks Workers United news release. The action follows a trend of unionization efforts at Starbucks coffee shops across the United States.

“Workers sent a letter to Starbucks Interim CEO Howard Schultz to announce their organizing campaign,” the Starbucks Workers United news release stated. “In the letter, workers explained that they are organizing as ‘we are being actively exploited every single day and management is either unable or unwilling to make changes to help us, we are left with no choice but to seek help elsewhere.’”

The push to unionize is being done in affiliation with the union Workers United Upstate, according to the news release.

“We are not anti-Starbucks. We are Starbucks. We are the face of this company, and we are the ones who earn for this company,” Shea Kaplan, an employee and organizer at the Encinitas location, said in the news release. “We see daily what is needed for our store to be successful. Joining the union is about getting what we need to do our jobs right when we are not receiving that aid from the company itself.”

Starbucks Workers United noted in its announcement that Starbucks has come under fire for alleged union-busting and retaliatory actions. On March 1, a National Labor Relations Board judge admonished Starbucks for alleged misconduct as it sought to quell efforts to unionize. An order required the company to reinstate employees who had been dismissed from New York locations that attempted to unionize.

According to the union group, 299 Starbucks outlets have unionized in 42 states and Washington, D.C.