Superior Starbucks workers become first in state to form union

SUPERIOR — Employees at the Starbucks coffee shop in Superior voted overwhelmingly Friday to form a union.

The Rock Creek Circle shop voted 12-2 — with one ballot voided — in favor of joining Starbucks Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, according to the National Labor Relations Board. 

Similar elections are scheduled later this year at six other Colorado locations, the union, which did not respond to request for comment Monday, said on Twitter. 

The Denver Post reported that wages, benefits and staffing will be top priorities when the newly formed union shop goes to the bargaining table with the Seattle coffee giant, which has seen a wave of unionization efforts in the last few months. 

Boulder County has seen its share of labor organization efforts of late.

In January, more than 8,000 union workers from nearly 80 King Soopers locations throughout metro Denver and the Boulder Valley — including employees in Boulder, Broomfield, Louisville and Westminster — went on strike for more than a week demanding pay raises, elimination of a two-tiered salary system that punishes newly hired workers, job outsourcing to non-union workers and stronger health and safety protections in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new labor contract was reached and union members were back to work within 10 days.

Workers with Boulder bakery Spruce Confections LLC voted in late 2021 to join the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco, and Grain Millers Union Local 26 and are now negotiating for their first collective bargaining agreement. 

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