Starbucks Workers United — the union representing most Starbucks workers who have begun to unionize — announced Tuesday that 21 locations around the country were unionizing. Two of those are along Colorado’s Front Range.
The two Colorado locations that are unionizing are at Jewell Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard in Lakewood, and 17th Avenue and Hover Street in Longmont. Workers there and at the hundreds of other Starbucks locations that are unionizing are “demanding higher wages, fair and consistent scheduling, improved benefits and a safe and dignified workplace,” Starbucks Workers United said in a statement.
Starbucks has disputed claims and pushed back against demands of the union since the start, despite hundreds of findings from National Labor Relations Board officials against the coffee giant.
“While we believe our direct relationship as partners is core to our culture and our continued improvements to the partner experience, we respect the rights of partners to organize and reaffirm our aim to negotiate first contracts for represented stores this year,” Starbucks company spokesman Andrew Trull said, in part, in a statement. “We encourage all partners at stores petitioning for representation to get the facts, make an informed choice and ensure their voice is heard by voting in neutral, secret-ballot elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. Our aim will be to ensure the process is fair and our partners’ voices are heard.”
While NLRB and federal administrative law judges’ findings and rulings aren’t final, they have found through several investigations and inquiries that Starbucks has violated its workers’ rights hundreds of times. In Colorado, two separate orders from judges have recommended the company rehire baristas who those judges say Starbucks unlawfully fired for their union organizing activities.
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“Starbucks has made a habit of prioritizing sales and profits over partner safety. We have worked through violent threats from customers, unsafe weather conditions, and a global pandemic,” Starbucks Workers United said in a statement. “Despite our willingness to work regardless of this disregard for our health and safety, we have been met with higher and higher expectations without being given the resources to meet them.”
In addition to those two Colorado locations, stores in Arkansas, California, Illinois, Louisiana, North Dakota, New York, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin announced unionization efforts on Tuesday. In total, the union says 396 other stores have moved forward with unionization.
