Longmont Starbucks workers join union

Editor’s note: This report was updated to include information from Starbucks

LONGMONT — Longmont Starbucks workers at the 17th and Hover store have become the latest coffee shop workforce to join a union.

The workers petitioned to join the Starbucks Workers United union in February and followed through with a vote this week. The workers voted 15-4 to join more than 410 stores and 10,000 Starbucks workers nationwide who have decided to unionize. It’s the first Starbucks in Longmont and the 11th Colorado location to join.​

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“Starbucks workers deserve consistency and reliability,” Emily Winkler, a barista with more than a year at the 17th & Hoover location, said in a written statement. “My hope in unionizing is creating an environment where we have the needed resources to better represent and run our store.”

“This election win is an important victory, but it’s only the beginning,” said Juniper Krone, a Starbucks barista of nearly two years. “We’re facing many issues that corporate has failed to address for years. We look forward to finally making some progress in fixing those problems and making our store a better place for workers and customers.”

Starbucks Corp. has resisted the unionization movement nationwide; federal administrative law judges have found the company to have committed more than 400 federal labor law violations. But in February, it reached an agreement with unionized workers to begin contract negotiations.

In a statement from Starbucks, a spokesperson said that the company “is eager to reach ratified agreements in 2024 for stores that have already voted for union representation.”

The spokesperson said that the Longmont vote still needs to be certified by the National Labor Relations Board and once that occurs the local union needs to designate a representative for the store and submit an initial bargaining demand. 

That’s followed by agreement on a bargaining date, and multiple meetings about contract terms.