Starbucks Workers United announced that baristas at unionized cafes have expanded their walkouts to more markets leading up to Christmas as the holiday bustle picks up. The strikes began last week in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle in response to stalled union contract negotiations.
Over the weekend, baristas in Columbus, Pittsburgh, Denver, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Portland, Ore., joined the escalating walkouts claiming unfair labor practices and stalled negotiations. The strike forced nearly 50 stores to shut down on Sunday, according to Workers United.
In a statement emailed to Nation's Restaurant News, Starbucks said, "The few disruptions we have experienced this week have had no significant impact to our store operations. Only a small handful of our U.S. stores have been impacted. We respect our partners' right to engage in lawful strike activity, and we appreciate the thousands of partners across the country who are continuing to support each other and deliver the Starbucks experience for our customers."
“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,” five-year barista and bargaining delegate Fatemeh Alhadjaboodi added in a statement. “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 and resolve the pending unfair labor practices. 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.”
In late February, Workers United and Starbucks completed mediation discussions and agreed to begin discussions on a “foundational framework to achieve collective bargaining agreements for represented stores and partners, the resolution of litigation between the union and the company, including brand litigation, and a fair process for workers to organize.”
At the time, Workers United called it a significant step forward. However, Starbucks Workers United said that since then, 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.
Starbucks counters that its commitment ensures that union employees receive the same merit increase as other employees each year and that it would not be less than 1.5%, meaning 1.5% is the floor. If a merit increase in a given year was 5%, represented partners would get 5%, for instance.
Workers United said it would continue the protests through Christmas Eve if the company doesn’t respond to its demands, including higher wages.
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.”
The walk outs come during a traditionally busy time for Starbucks as consumers finish their last-minute shopping for the holiday season. They also come after the chain’s signature Red Cup Day generated some much-needed traffic spikes in November. According to Placer.ai, Red Cup Day, Nov. 14, drove a 42.4% increase in daily visits relative to the recent Thursday average, and a 9.4% increase in weekly visits compared to the recent weekly average. It also outpaced Red Cup Days in both 2022 and 2023.
The strikes also come as new chief executive officer Brian Niccol tries to reverse several quarters of declining sales through efforts like ditching the non-dairy milk upcharge and reducing wait times to four minutes. Starbucks’ share price has declined by more than $14.30 (or about 15%) since the beginning of December.
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
