Starbucks union launches strike that will build through Christmas Eve
The Starbucks Workers United union is kicking off a five-day strike at stores in three major U.S. cities.
Starbucks Workers United, the union that represents approximately 10,000 employees in more than 500 Starbucks stores nationwide, announced in a series of posts on its verified X (the social network formerly known as Twitter) account that Starbucks baristas are going on five days of escalating unfair labor practice strikes, beginning at locations in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle, due to the company “backtracking on (a) promised path forward.”
"Since February, Starbucks has repeatedly pledged publicly that they intended to reach contracts by the end of the year - but they’ve yet to present workers with a serious economic proposal," the union said in an X post. "This week, less than two weeks before their end-of-year deadline, Starbucks proposed no immediate wage increase for union baristas, and a guarantee of only 1.5% wage increases in future years."
Starbucks Workers United said on X that the strikes will begin the morning of Friday, Dec. 20 and escalate through Tuesday, Dec. 24 (Christmas Eve) unless Starbucks agrees to work toward a “foundational framework.” The union is also calling for “solidarity canvass” events to be held at non-unionized stores during the strike period.
In a statement to CNBC, Starbucks said it is ready to continue negotiations that the union broke off earlier this week, but Starbucks Workers United need to return to the table. The company called a previous request for a 64% bump in hourly wages that would rise to 77% over a three-year period "unsustainable."
In March 2024, Starbucks shifted its strategy regarding labor unions by entering talks with Starbucks Workers United after Starbucks has faced allegations, which it denies, that it has actively worked to resist union organizing at the company.
[READ MORE: Starbucks to work with unions]
It also came under the leadership of Laxman Narasimhan, who took the reins as CEO from Howard Schultz in 2023 (and has since been replaced by Brian Niccol). Schultz had made no secret of his opposition to the unionizing efforts at Starbucks.
In what some called a major concession — and it what Starbucks called a "sign of good faith" — the company has agreed to provide employees represented by Workers United with the pay hikes and other benefits it introduced in May 2022 to its nonunion workers, including allowing customers to add a tip to their credit card payments.
In May 2024, the company announced it was making progress in retooling its approach to employee staffing and scheduling — two areas which union workers have been focusing on in their campaign for better working conditions.
And within the past few days, Niccol said that staring this spring, the coffee giant will offer 18 weeks of fully-paid parental leave for birth parents, up from its previous benefit of six weeks.
Non-birth parents (including adoptive or long-term foster parents) will be eligible for 12 weeks of paid leave. The expanded benefit applies to U.S. store employees who work an average of 20 hours a week of more.
Starbucks Workers United previously ran a one-week strike involving around 3,500 workers in more than 150 stores nationwide in June 2023 to protest what it called Starbucks’ “hypocrisy” regarding LGBTQ+-related issues. The company denied the union’s accusations.
The Starbucks strike comes as the Teamsters union is running a holiday season strike of its own against select Amazon delivery stations and fulfillment centers.
