Starbucks store employees plan to go on a five-day strike starting Friday to protest the lack of progress in contract negotiations with the company.
The strike is scheduled to begin in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle, and could spread to hundreds of stores nationwide by Christmas Eve.
Starting in 2021, Starbucks Workers United, a union that will organize workers at 535 company-owned stores in the United States, announced that Starbucks has not kept its promise to conclude a collective bargaining agreement in February.
The union also wants the company to resolve outstanding legal issues, including hundreds of unfair labor practice complaints filed by workers with the National Labor Relations Board.
The union said Brian Nicol, Starbucks' new chairman and CEO who took over in September, could earn more than $100 million in his first year on the job.
However, the union said the company recently proposed an economic package that would not give new wage increases to unionized baristas at this time, but would increase them by 1.5% in the future.
“Union baristas know their value and will not accept an offer that does not treat them as true partners,” said Workers United President Lynn Fox.
Seattle-based Starbucks said Workers United prematurely ended this week's bargaining session. Starbucks has approximately 10,000 company-operated stores in the United States.
“We are prepared to continue negotiating to reach an agreement. We need unions back to the table,” Starbucks said in a statement.
Starbucks said it already offers pay and benefits worth $30 an hour to baristas who work at least 20 hours a week, including free college tuition and paid family leave.
This isn't the first time Starbucks has struck during the busy holiday season. In November 2023, thousands of employees at more than 200 stores walked out on Red Cup Day, when the company typically gives away thousands of reusable cups.
Reuters
Hundreds of workers also went on strike in June 2023 to protest after the union announced that Starbucks would ban Pride displays in some stores.
The union and the company took different stances when they returned to the bargaining table earlier this year and promised to reach an agreement.
Starbucks said it has held nine bargaining sessions with unions since April and reached more than 30 agreements with unions.
However, the two countries currently appear to be at an impasse.
Fatemeh Alhajaboudi, a Starbucks barista and negotiator from Texas, said in a statement, “Starbucks has invested millions of dollars in executive talent in a year that has seen it develop a viable workforce for baristas to run the company.'' “We were unable to present an economic proposal.” .
