In 2024, Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) grew across the U.S.: In October, the 500th Starbucks location unionized, and now there are over 525 stores in 45 states who have voted to unionize. And in February, Starbucks finally agreed to bargain with the union, but negotiations have stalled — SBWU has accused the company of failing to present a viable economic proposal, despite the company’s insistence that they settle the contract by the end of the year. In response, the union is going on an unfair labor practice strike across the country.
Starbucks Workers United baristas will begin escalating strikes through Christmas Eve beginning in 3 of Starbucks’ most important markets: Seattle, LA, and Chicago.
We are calling on allies to join us at 3 “anchor” picket lines TODAY. Each day, we’ll announce more locations! https://t.co/VdwotIUgxP pic.twitter.com/BwIJbeC9SH
— Starbucks Workers United (@SBWorkersUnited) December 20, 2024
SBWU has planned a series of escalating strikes, beginning today and ending December 24. Today, workers will be walking off the job at 15 stores in Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago, and the union will announce more locations across the country on subsequent days. By Christmas Eve, hundreds of stores could be on strike.
In LA, strikes began at a location in Burbank, and in Chicago, striking locations include two in Edgewater and Bucktown.
“In September, Brian Niccol became CEO with a compensation package worth at least $113 million. It’s worth a shocking 10,000 times the median hourly wage for a barista,” Michelle Eisen, a Buffalo Starbucks barista and bargaining delegate, said in a press release. “In October, we were ready to exchange comprehensive economic proposals. In October, November, and December, Starbucks failed to bring viable economic proposals to the table that included real investment in baristas. This is backtracking on months and months of progress and promises from the company to work toward an end-of-year framework ratification. We’re ready to do what it takes to show the company the consequences of not keeping their promises to baristas.” Starbucks has not yet responded to a request for comment from Eater.
After the departure of former CEO Howard Schultz, who testified about his anti-union stance before Congress, the company has seemingly become more willing to engage with unionized workers. In March 2023, Schultz was replaced by Laxman Narasimhan, who despite being more amenable to the union, still held the line that “a direct relationship with our partners is the best way forward.” This September, Narasimhan was replaced by Niccol, who explicitly committed to bargaining with the union. “I deeply respect the right of our partners to choose, through a fair and democratic process, to be represented by a union,” Niccol wrote in an open letter. “If our partners choose to be represented, I am committed to making sure we engage constructively and in good faith with the union and the partners it represents.”
Starbucks spokesman Andrew Trull told the New York Times that union delegates “prematurely ended” talks this week. “It is disappointing [SBWU] didn’t return to the table given the progress we’ve made to date,” he told the Times.
The union has made strides in bargaining this year, tentatively agreeing with the company on paid parental leave and just cause firing. But according to the SBWU, “Starbucks proposed an economic package with no new wage increases for union baristas now and a guarantee of only 1.5% in future years,” which workers say is unacceptable in the current economic climate. It also says the company hasn’t moved on resolving hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB.
“After all Starbucks has said about how they value partners throughout the system, we refuse to accept zero immediate investment in baristas’ wages and no resolution of the hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practices,” said Lynne Fox, President of Workers United, in a statement. “Union baristas know their value, and they’re not going to accept a proposal that doesn’t treat them as true partners.”
SBWU has staged strikes during disruptive times for Starbucks before, including on Red Cup Day, historically one of the company’s most profitable days. “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,” barista and bargaining delegate Fatemeh Alhadjaboodi said 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. 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.”
