Woods Cross Starbucks files for a union election, may join other 6 stores in Utah

A Starbucks store in Salt Lake City is pictured on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. (McKenzie Romero/Utah News Dispatch)

Workers at a Woods Cross Starbucks filed a petition to unionize before the National Labor Relations Board on Friday. 

With the action, the café on 2600 South and Interstate 15 is hoping to join more than 460 Starbucks that have voted to organize since 2021 in 44 states and the District of Columbia, according to a news release. 

If the majority of baristas vote to form a union, the shop at Woods Cross could become the seventh in Utah to unionize. Most recently, a South Jordan Starbucks unanimously voted to organize, joining other stores in Cottonwood Heights, South Salt Lake, Bountiful, Park City and Salt Lake City.

Workers across the country have asked for protections on issues such as living wages, racial and gender equity, and fair scheduling, according to a news release. 

“I’ve had enough long days being stained with milk, coffee, and syrup, but I come home to an empty fridge and I know I’m worth more than that,” Hannah Hunter, a shift supervisor at the store said in the release.

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Cory Wagner, another shift supervisor said that while he loved the shop, it has been challenging to see his colleagues suffering while working.

“We watched what unionizing did for the stores around us and recognized that we needed to be a part of this movement. We want that feeling of safety and belonging Starbucks once believed in,” Wagner said in the release.

The company and union representatives are working toward ratified contracts by the end of the year.

Eleven other stores, in Arizona, California, Washington, Georgia, Indiana, Vermont, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, also filed for union elections this week.

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