Unionized baristas from 65 Starbucks locations in the United States initiated a strike on Thursday to reinforce their efforts in securing a collective bargaining agreement focusing on wage and staffing issues.
Negotiations between the union and the company have been inactive since discussions collapsed in December 2024. Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) revealed on their website that Starbucks put forth a new economic proposal in April, which was rejected by union members.
Following the rejection, Starbucks released a statement on April 25 stating that despite extensive negotiations and numerous proposals exchanged, Workers United opted to present an incomplete framework for single-store contracts to their delegates, hindering collective progress.
The union reported that over 1,000 Starbucks employees in 40 U.S. cities are participating in the strike. The workers walked out on Starbucks’s Red Cup Day on Nov. 13, a key sales event marking the start of the coffee chain’s busy holiday season.
SBWU emphasized unaddressed demands by Starbucks, including concerns about understaffing and the need for wage increases. The union expressed frustration on its website, urging for progress in negotiations to move forward.
Starbucks responded by expressing disappointment that Workers United, representing less than four percent of their partners, chose to strike instead of returning to the bargaining table. SBWU highlighted that engaging in negotiations is futile if Starbucks fails to propose solutions aligning with the union’s requests.
Since its inception in 2021 with the first unionized Starbucks shop in Buffalo, New York, SBWU has grown to represent thousands of baristas. Currently, 550 out of around 17,000 Starbucks locations in the U.S. are unionized with SBWU.
Barry Eidlin, a sociology professor at McGill University, attributed the union’s growth to its grassroots organizational model, which differs from traditional union approaches. While the union’s success in achieving wage increases and improved staffing remains uncertain, Eidlin acknowledged their significant efforts in organizing from the ground up.
In September, several Starbucks locations across North America were closed, leading to the layoff of 900 non-retail employees. Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol addressed the closures as a challenging decision, impacting both partners and customers.
In Canada, the United Steelworkers (USW) announced that workers at five Starbucks locations in Ontario ratified their first union-led collective agreement in May. Previously, Starbucks closed its sole unionized store in Vancouver in 2023, prompting a complaint from USW Local 2009. The B.C. Labour Relations Board confirmed Starbucks’ legitimate reasons for the closure but criticized the company for improper actions against an employee involved in unionizing efforts.
The USW, representing 225,000 Canadian workers, supported the striking U.S. workers’ demands as essential for a healthy workplace, urging Starbucks to resume negotiations in good faith for a resolution.
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