Colorado Starbucks baristas testify in federal trial

Case largest workers’ action alleging union busting

BY MATT BLOOM COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO

Starbucks broke the law when it discouraged union support at four of its stores in Colorado, a federal prosecutor said during opening arguments in the co ee company’s latest labor rights trial this month.

Store managers dissuaded workers from voting in favor of unionization during all-sta meetings, and punished pro-union baristas through write-ups and wrongful terminations, said Isabel Saveland, a National Labor Relations Board attorney representing workers from Denver and Colorado Springs. e agency is hoping to win the re-hiring of three union workers, as well as secure back pay and damages for other sta ers it says the company unfairly targeted.

“Starbucks’ unlawful tactics go against unionization and our country’s laws,” said Saveland during her opening arguments in federal court in Denver.

e case is the largest legal action workers have taken against the company’s alleged union busting in the wake of a wave of organizing at Starbucks locations in the state last year. Last month, a federal judge ruled in favor of workers at another union store in Denver. from two stores from Denver: 16th Avenue and Tremont Pl. and Leetsdale Dr., as well as two stores in Colorado Springs: Academy Blvd. and Flintridge Dr. and Brookside St. and Nevada Ave., which the company has since shuttered.

More than 270 of the co ee giant’s locations across the United States have unionized since December 2021. e rst Colorado location, in Superior, joined Starbucks Workers United last April, followed by locations in Denver, Colorado Springs and Greeley.

Attorneys representing Starbucks called the latest set of allegations overblown and defended the com-

“What we’re looking at is a bunch of green employees who don’t like playing by the rules,” said Kevin Kraham, an attorney with Littler Mendelson, during opening remarks. “ e real world has consequences and people are held accountable.” e case includes six unfair labor