Economy & Economic Development  February 21, 2024

Starbucks baristas in Longmont join nationwide unionization push

LONGMONT — Baristas at the Longmont Starbucks location at 17th Avenue and Hover Street have filed petitions with the National Labor Relations Board to join the Starbucks Workers United union. 

Workers in Longmont were among employees at 21 Starbucks coffee shops to join a nationwide unionization push in February. 

“Across the country management is cutting hours, writing inconsistent and unreliable schedules, and placing more and more work on fewer and fewer partners,” the workers wrote in a letter to Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan. “We ‘partners’ demand a say. We are the face of Starbucks. As employees, we deserve the same respect and dignity as the CEO.”  

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Employees at nearly 400 Starbucks locations, including those in Boulder, Superior and Westminster, have unionized in recent years. 

“Over the last few months we’ve been held to higher and higher sales expectations and haven’t received the support we need to meet those expectations,” Longmont Starbucks barista Juniper Krone said in a prepared statement. “Our hours have been cut, it’s become harder to get problems in the store addressed, and our pay rates haven’t kept pace with inflation. We hope that unionizing will help us get the consistency and support we need to do our jobs well.”

Lucas High
A Maryland native, Lucas has worked at news agencies from Wyoming to South Carolina before putting roots down in Colorado.
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