AP Photo\/Lindsey Wasson<\/p>\n
New York City mayor-elect\u00a0Zohran Mamdani\u00a0called for a boycott of the coffee giant Starbucks on Thursday, urging solidarity with employees of the company who are on striking to demand concessions in contract negotiations.<\/p>\n
The members of Starbucks Workers United<\/a>, the union that represents about 550 unionized Starbucks locations, walked out on Thursday in order to advocate for improved wages and benefits. The strike began on the company\u2019s Red Cup Day<\/a>, a promotion wherein shoppers receive a free reusable cup when they purchase a holiday themed drink.<\/p>\n The strike came after Workers United, which represents over 12,000 baristas across 600 locations, voted<\/a> with an overwhelming majority to authorize the strike last week. Over 1,000 participants in more than 40 U.S. cities joined the \u201cRed Cup Rebellion\u201d Thursday, forcing almost all of the 65 unionized Starbucks locations to close, according<\/a> to the union. New York City has nearly 200 locations within the five boroughs.<\/p>\n Baristas are protesting \u201csix months of Starbucks refusing to offer new proposals to address workers\u2019 demands for better staffing, higher pay, and resolution for hundreds of unfair labor practice charges,\u201d said the SWU in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mamdani threw his support behind the strikers, telling his followers he won\u2019t be shopping at the chain until a fair contract is negotiated.<\/p>\n \u201cStarbucks workers across the country are on an Unfair Labor Practices strike, fighting for a fair contract,\u201d he wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cWhile workers are on strike, I won\u2019t be buying any Starbucks, and I\u2019m asking you to join us. Together, we can send a powerful message: No contract, no coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n The mayor-elect was not the only political figure to publicly back the workers in their efforts.<\/p>\n \u201cI stand in solidarity with @SBWorkersUnited and say #NoContractNoCoffee,\u201d wrote<\/a> Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) on X. \u201cWhen we strike, we win!\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) also voiced his solidarity, agreeing<\/a> with the strikers that \u201cStarbucks must put an end to their union busting and negotiate in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement<\/a> made after the strike authorization, Starbucks said the company\u2019s \u201ccommitment to bargaining hasn\u2019t changed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWorkers United walked away from the table but if they are ready to come back, we\u2019re ready to talk,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n The union, for its part, has signaled it has no intention of ending the strike anytime soon.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re prepared to escalate with more stores striking if we don\u2019t see substantial progress toward finalizing contracts that address pay, hours\/staffing, and the resolution of 100s of ULPs,\u201d the union said in a statement<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n The post Mamdani Calls to Boycott Hundreds of NYC Starbucks Branches While Workers Are On Strike<\/a> first appeared on Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AP Photo\/Lindsey Wasson New York City mayor-elect\u00a0Zohran Mamdani\u00a0called for a boycott of the coffee giant Starbucks on Thursday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[23349,9,56,63,65,64,23007,14094,22927,23012,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-40121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-contract-negotiations","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-ny","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-nyc-headlines","13":"tag-nyc-news","14":"tag-red-cup-rebellion","15":"tag-starbucks","16":"tag-starbucks-workers-united","17":"tag-workers-united","18":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}