Starbucks workers begin strikes that could spread to hundreds of US stores by Christmas Eve

Workers at Starbucks stores began a five-day strike Friday to protest lack of progress in contract negotiations with the company.

The strikes by baristas and other workers were scheduled to take place in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle and could spread to hundreds of stores across the country by Christmas Eve. Starbucks Workers United, the union organizing Starbucks' baristas, said at least 10 locations were closed down as of midday Friday.

The walkouts came a day after the Teamsters union announced strikes at seven Amazon delivery hubs.

Starbucks said early Friday there was “no significant impact” to its store operations.

“We are aware of disruption at a small handful of stores, but the overwhelming majority of our U.S. stores remain open and serving customers as normal,” the Seattle-based coffee giant said in a statement.

Workers at 535 company-owned U.S. stores have voted to unionize, but Starbucks has nearly 10,000 company-owned U.S. stores

Starbucks Workers United, which began the unionization effort in 2021, said Starbucks has failed to honor a commitment made in February to reach a labor agreement this year. The union also wants the company to resolve outstanding legal issues, including hundreds of unfair labor practice charges that workers have filed with the National Labor Relations Board.

The union noted that Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who started in September, could make more than $100 million in his first year on the job. But it said the company recently proposed an economic package with no new wage increases for unionized baristas now and a 1.5% increase in future years.

“Union baristas know their value, and they’re not going to accept a proposal that doesn’t treat them as true partners," Starbucks Workers United President Lynne Fox said.

Starbucks said Workers United prematurely ended a bargaining session this week.

“We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements. We need the union to return to the table,” the company said in a statement.

Negotiations are currently focused on pay raises. Starbucks said it has committed to an annual pay increase of at least 1.5% for unionized workers. If the company gave a lower increase to non-union workers in any given year, it still would give union workers a 1.5% increase.

Starbucks said the union wants to increase the minimum wage for hourly workers by 64% immediately and 77% over the life of a three-year contract.

Starbucks said it already pays an average of $18 per hour. With benefits — including health care, free college tuition and paid family leave — Starbucks' pay package is worth an average of $30 per hour for baristas who work at least 20 hours per week.

The strikes won't be the first for Starbucks during the busy holiday season. In November 2023, thousands of workers at more than 200 stores walked out on Red Cup Day, when the company usually gives away thousands of reusable cups. Hundreds of workers also went on strike in June 2023 to protest after the union said Starbucks banned Pride displays at some stores.

The union and the company struck a different tone early this year, when they returned to the bargaining table and pledged to reach an agreement. Starbucks said it has held nine bargaining sessions with the union since April, and has reached more than 30 agreements with the union.

But Starbucks has struggled with falling sales and lower customer traffic in the U.S. and abroad this year, and the CEO who promised to work for a labor agreement, Laxman Narasimhan, was forced out this summer. Niccol quashed a unionization campaign at Chipotle when he was the CEO there, but he pledged to work constructively with the union in a September letter.

Now, Starbucks and the union appear to be at an impasse.

“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,” Fatemeh Alhadjaboodi, a Starbucks barista from Texas and bargaining delegate, said in a statement.

Starbucks shares were down 1% in afternoon trading.