Starbucks baristas launch strikes just ahead of ChristmasStarbucks baristas launch strikes just ahead of Christmas

Joanna Fantozzi

Starbucks Workers United announced that baristas at unionized Starbucks cafes across the country are going on strike during the busiest days leading up to Christmas in response to stalled union contract negotiations

The Starbucks union is launching five days of walkouts at unionized cafes, beginning in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle, and spreading around the country, leading up to Christmas Eve. The walkouts will continue to escalate over the next five days unless Starbucks executives agree to honor their commitment to work with the union made in February, and then reiterated by new CEO Brian Niccol in September.

“Nobody wants to strike. It’s a last resort, but Starbucks has broken its promise to thousands of baristas and left us with no choice,” Fatemeh Alhadjaboodi, a Texas barista and union bargaining delegate, told Starbucks Workers United. “In a year when Starbucks invested so many millions in top executive talent, it has failed to present the baristas who make its company run with a viable economic proposal. This is just the beginning. We will do whatever it takes to get the company to honor the commitment it made to us in February.”

According to Starbucks Workers United, unionized baristas have been presented with an economic package proposal with no new wage increases for unionized baristas and a guarantee of only a 1.5% increase in future years. This, according to the union, is not enough, and also leaves dozens of other unresolved issues on the table.

Related:Starbucks union votes to authorize strike ahead of final bargaining talks

Starbucks executives claim that the union has called for “an immediate 64% increase”  in hourly wages for baristas and 77% over the course of a three-year contract, which the company said is “not sustainable.”

“It is disappointing that Workers United didn’t return to the table given the progress we’ve made to date,” Starbucks said in a statement. “Since April we’ve held more than nine bargaining sessions over 20 days. We’ve reached over 30 meaningful agreements on hundreds of topics Workers United delegates told us were important to them, including many economic issues.”

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