A federal labor board postponed a scheduled vote count that was to have taken place on Wednesday that would determine whether three more Starbucks Corp. locations in upstate New York will join a union.

Baristas at the cafes in Buffalo already cast ballots by mail about whether to join Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.

But Starbucks had challenged a previous decision by the National Labor Relations Board allowing the elections to go forward one store at a time, rather than in one group for the entire area.

Because the NLRB had not ruled by the time votes were to be tallied, the count was delayed. The board impounded the ballots to be counted in the future.