Starbucks workers in several major US cities are planning to strike until Christmas Eve, according to the Starbucks Workers United union.
The union announced on Friday that workers in three cities — Seattle, Los Angeles, and Chicago — will strike beginning on Fridayand continuing until Christmas Eve.
The strike is reportedly a response to Starbucks corporate’s “failure to bring viable economic proposals to the bargaining table,” and to “resolve hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practice charges,” according to the union.
NBC News reports that the union claims to represent 525 stores and more than 10,500 workers. Starbucks has nearly 10,000 stores across the country, according to the Associated Press.
“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 wrote on X. “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.”
Union representatives said the strikes would escalate over the next five days, and potentially prompt similar labor action at other stores across the US. They said the strikes will continue until Christmas Eve “unless Starbucks honors our commitment to work towards a foundational framework.”
Starbucks has at least publicly shrugged off the strike, telling NBC News that the work stoppage has had “no significant impact” on its operations.
“We are aware of disruption at a small handful of stores, but the overwhelming majority of our US stores remain open and serving customers as normal,” the company said.
A bargaining delegate for the union and Philadelphia barista, Silvia Baldwin, said he was making $16.50 an hour, while the company’s CEO, Brian Niccol, is making $57,000 an hour.
“The company just announced I’m only getting a 2.5% raise next year, $0.40 an hour, which is hardly anything. It’s one Starbucks drink per week. Starbucks needs to invest in the baristas who make Starbucks run,” she said in a statement.
Starbucks has insisted that the company offers a “competitive average pay of over $18 per hour, and best-in-class benefits” that include health insurance, college tuition assistance, paid family leave, and company stock grants.
The coffee behemoth argued that the workers asking for raises would make the company’s operation “not sustainable.”
“Workers United proposals call for an immediate increase in the minimum wage of hourly partners by 64%, and by 77% over the life of a three-year year contract. This is not sustainable,” Starbucks said in a statement, adding that the company was willing to continue negotiations.
The strike comes a day after Amazon workers in several warehouses across the country launched their own strike.
Striking workers in Queens were arrested by police after they picketed outside their New York warehouse. The strike, led by the Teamsters, is the largest strike against Amazon in the US to date.
Their strike comes at the height of the holiday shipping rush as Americans order last-minute Christmas gifts and other products from the online mega-retailer.
