One of the few unionized Starbucks SBUX-Q stores in British Columbia is closing at the end of September.
Leanna Rizzi, a spokeswoman for the coffee chain, confirmed the closing of the Dunbar Street location in Vancouver via e-mail, saying it’s owing to a natural lease expiry.
She says the store is one of the smallest in the Starbucks portfolio, and it wasn’t possible to make necessary investments to renovate it, but workers will have the opportunity to transfer to a nearby location.
Twenty-two workers at the café voted to join the United Steelworkers Union in February, becoming one of a handful of unionized Starbucks locations in B.C. represented by that union.
The United Steelworkers Union also represents some Starbucks stores in Alberta and Ontario.
The most recent Starbucks store to join the Steelworkers was in Ajax, Ont., where workers voted to join at the end of August.