Is the Unionized Greeley Starbucks in Jeopardy of Being Closed?
It could be a not-so-busy fall and winter for one of the nine Starbucks locations in Greeley, if things go down the way they have for another Colorado location.
The hugely popular coffee chain, which has brought a lot of enjoyment to millions of people across the world, has recently met with blowback from employees. That blowback may have been why one in Colorado was shut down. Will one in Greeley be next?
There's just something about Starbucks that draws people in: the selection of drinks/food, the flavors, the fact that it's just been around for so long. It's also about the people working at the tens of thousands Starbucks locations. They can make a person's day, even when they sometimes get your name wrong.
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There are over 15,000 Starbucks locations across the U.S. That is a lot of employees working as hard as they can, shift after shift. Some of the locations have found it necessary to unionize, including the Greeley location at University Square (11th Avenue near Highway 34.) Those employees were looking for better safety conditions and better communication with the overall management.
According to CPR, in late September of 2022, the workers at that Greeley location did vote to unionize and became members of the Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board of Workers. Contract talks are to begin soon with Starbucks. However, another unionized Colorado Starbucks location won't be getting that chance.
A Colorado Springs Starbucks location that had unionized in May of 2022, has been shut down by the company. CPR reports that Starbucks closed that shop down because of "ongoing safety issues impacting customers and partners." The company will be helping the workers there find other locations to work at, as that shop will be closed as of October 23, 2022. Coincidentally, contract talks were to begin with Starbucks corporate on October 24.
Starbucks corporate definitely has not been "on-board" with the way that around 300 stores have unionized, and they are probably looking for any reason to close the ones that have unionized down. Of the now seven unionized Starbucks in Colorado, the Greeley location is the only one, currently, that is unionized in Northern Colorado. Hopefully, Starbucks corporate won't find a reason to have it shut down.