Cottonwood Heights Starbucks location first to unionize in Utah. (Photo credit: Simone Seikaly)
SALT LAKE CITY — Starbucks employees at the Cottonwood Heights, Utah location said they will attempt to unionize by joining the Workers United union.
In a letter to Howard Schultz, the founder and president/CEO of Starbucks, the workers at Starbucks 50326 said they are joining with other Starbucks employees across the country who have the same desire to join a union.
“We as the partners of Starbucks 50326 on 7025s Highland Fort Union Blvd have decided to stand united with partners across the country in expressing our intentions to unionize,” the Starbucks employees said in a statement.
“We’re overjoyed to declare that we will be filing with Worker(s) United and we are excited to see what this will bring.”
“We are listening and learning from the partners in these stores as we always do across the country,” Starbucks told KSL NewsRadio in a statement.
“From the beginning, we’ve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed.”
Starbucks is a national chain of coffee houses. Their employees first attempted to unionize in 1985, according to Sheila Farr, author of the essay Starbucks: The Early Years. This attempt as well as all others since that time proved unsuccessful, according to the New York Times.
However, in 2021, a Starbucks location in Buffalo, New York was successful in joining a union which led to 70 other Starbucks locations trying to build momentum for their employees to unionize.