A Strike Is Brewing At Starbucks, But Will It Matter?
After five years without a contract, baristas at 550 Starbucks stores in 25 American cities have voted to strike on Thursday unless a final employment contract is reached.
Twenty-seven workers at a Starbucks coffee shop in Buffalo, NY, voted to unionize in 2021, sparking a wave of successful unionization drives at more than 550 Starbucks stores around the country.
But five years have passed and Starbucks Workers United, which represents approximately 9,500 Starbucks employees, has not managed to obtain a final union contract from the company, which operates the largest coffee chain in the world.
The union has filed more than 700 unfair labor complaints against Starbucks since 2021, and, in 2024, former CEO Howard Schultz was summoned before a U.S. Senate committee and castigated for engaging in illegal union-busting. Workers have also engaged in dozens of walkouts.
Still no final contract.
The workers’ struggle illustrates the obstacles to unionization
Starbucks Workers United, which represents union workers, announced this week that workers have voted to authorize a strike on Thursday, when Starbucks’ holds its annual “Red Coffee Day” promotion, unless the company tenders a satisfactory final contract. Of the thousands of union members who voted, 92% were in favor of the strike, according to the labor group.
Democrats Show Of Support
On Monday, 26 U.S. senators and 82 members of the House of Representatives sent letters to Starbucks’ CEO Brian Niccol to urge the company to resume contract talks.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, in a letter on behalf of the senators, expressed concern that Starbucks has returned to “union busting” since Niccol became chief executive officer of Starbucks in 2024. Sanders wrote that Starbucks not only has failed to “put forward a serious economic proposal” but is “backtracking on the previously agreed-upon path forward.”
All the letter signatories are Democrats; no Republican signed on.
Sanders states Nichols was paid “$95 million in compensation for the four months you worked in 2024, roughly 6,666 times more than what your average worker was paid for the entire year.” He said Starbucks also paid out nearly $5 billion in stock buybacks and dividends.
“While Starbucks executives and wealthy shareholders reap enormous profits, the company continues to deny its workers a living wage, predictable scheduling and decent benefits — demands that would cost less than one day of Starbucks’ average sales,” Sanders wrote.
Closing Stores
Meanwhile, Starbucks sales have dropped with increased competition and as customers rebel against high-priced coffee. Starbucks suffered six quarters of sales decline until October, when the company reported one-percent global sales growth. Starbucks has launched new technology - which will likely replace some workers - and is exploring new value marketing concepts.
Starbucks announced earlier this year that it was closing hundreds of underperforming stores across the country and Canada and eliminating 900 non-retail jobs as part of a $1 billion restructuring effort to address slowing sales.
Sanders was joined on the letter by Sens. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).