{"id":48292,"date":"2025-11-22T04:21:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T04:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/48292\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T04:21:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T04:21:27","slug":"starbucks-workers-escalate-ulp-strike-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/48292\/","title":{"rendered":"Starbucks workers escalate ULP strike \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"NY:\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Starbucks Workers United union members rallied outside a Starbucks in Park Slope.<\/p>\n

Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

One week into its open-ended unfair labor practices (ULP) strike, Starbucks Workers United is escalating its action, with hundreds of baristas in 25 additional cities joining picket lines. More than 2,000 Starbucks baristas are now striking at 95 stores in 65 cities, and new stores continue filing for union elections \u2014 including five non-union shops that submitted petitions this week.<\/p>\n

The strike began Nov. 13<\/a> at about 65 unionized Starbucks stores in more than 40 cities under the banner \u201cRed Cup Rebellion.\u201d Workers are calling for the resolution of ULP charges \u2014 Workers United has filed more than 1,000, and more than 650 remain unresolved, including charges involving bad-faith bargaining, unilateral policy changes, and retaliatory firings and discipline \u2014 as well as better pay and staffing.<\/p>\n

Workers United, now 11,000 members strong, is one of the fastest-growing unions in the country. Members say they are prepared to stage the largest and longest strike in company history if Starbucks does not return to the bargaining table with a fair contract. The union argues that such a contract \u2014 addressing pay, staffing, and ULPs \u2014 would cost the company less than one average day of sales and less than CEO Brian Niccol\u2019s $96 million compensation after four months on the job.<\/p>\n

Outside a Starbucks on Fourth Avenue in South Slope, Kai Fritz, a barista at the Caesar\u2019s Bay Shopping Center location and a strike captain, told Brooklyn Paper that workers are committed to staying out until the Seattle-based chain makes a viable offer.<\/p>\n

\"\"Starbucks Workers United union members rallied outside a Starbucks in Park Slope, Brooklyn.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Starbucks Workers United union members rallied outside a Starbucks in Park Slope, Brooklyn.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know it\u2019s gonna take a lot for them to come back to the table. And so we\u2019re prepped to be out here in the cold at different stores,\u201d Fritz said.\n<\/p>\n

In a statement to Brooklyn Paper last week, a Starbucks spokesperson claimed that Workers United abandoned bargaining in April and took an incomplete framework to delegates for a vote.\n<\/p>\n

Fritz countered that the company had proposed \u201cunlivable\u201d wages.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had [proposed] different versions of what pay could look like, of what benefits could look like, so that workers do not have to live paycheck to paycheck,\u201d Fritz said. \u201cThey rejected all of those and gave us a completely unacceptable offer. They say that we walked away from the table, but in reality, they were not sending people who could make decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working for Starbucks is more taxing than many assume, Fritz added.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to so many Starbucks workers recently who aren\u2019t unionized, saying that they know what kind of abuse this company does against their workers, and they know how hard it is to work this job,\u201d Fritz said.<\/p>\n

Fritz said the support striking baristas have received from other unions, elected officials like Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani<\/a> and Bernie Sanders<\/a>, and the broader community has been encouraging.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing on strike is hard and also taxing in its own way,\u201d Fritz said. \u201cBut it\u2019s also great to see people come out of the woodwork and really support our movement, because they know what\u2019s right, and they also know who\u2019s going to win here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Starbucks Workers United union members rallied outside a Starbucks in Park Slope, Brooklyn.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"Starbucks Workers United union members rallied outside a Starbucks in Park Slope, Brooklyn.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Workers United is urging customers not to cross picket lines and to stop buying from the coffee chain in solidarity with baristas.\n<\/p>\n

Fritz said many customers have formed personal connections with their baristas over time.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI know your exact order. I know you get three sugars, not four. I know you get the Grande size, but you put it in the Venti cup so you have extra room. I know that your kids just graduated,\u201d Fritz said. \u201cIf you want to keep getting coffee that you like and keep having these conversations that make you feel like this is your community, you should support the people who create that environment for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Paper has reached out to Starbucks for comment on the escalating strike and is awaiting a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starbucks Workers United union members rallied outside a Starbucks in Park Slope. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann One week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,23004,9,24,12,370,63,8005,23006,23007,14094,23008,23009,22927,27266,27267,23011],"class_list":["post-48292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-coffee-giant","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc","tag-park-slope","tag-red-cup-day","tag-red-cup-rebellion","tag-starbucks","tag-starbucks-barista","tag-starbucks-barista-strike","tag-starbucks-workers-united","tag-ulp","tag-unfair-labor-practice-strike","tag-union-baristas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48292","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=48292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}