Starbucks\u2019 union members have voted to strike at the company\u2019s U.S. stores next week unless it finalizes a contract agreement, the union said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The strike would begin on Nov. 13, which is the day Starbucks plans to distribute free, reusable red cups. Red Cup Day, a Starbucks tradition since 2018, is typically one of the company\u2019s busiest days of the year.<\/p>\n
Starbucks Workers United, the union organizing baristas, didn\u2019t say how many stores would be impacted. But it said workers in at least 25 cities planned to strike and more locations could be added if the union doesn\u2019t see \u201csubstantial progress\u201d toward finalizing a contract.<\/p>\n
Around 550 of Starbucks\u2019 10,000 company-operated U.S. stores are currently unionized. More stores have voted to unionize since 2021<\/a>, but Starbucks closed 59 unionized stores in September as part of a larger restructuring<\/a>.<\/p>\n The union and the company have yet to agree to a labor contract. In December 2023, Starbucks vowed to finalize<\/a> an agreement by the end of 2024. But the company ousted Laxman Narasimhan, the CEO who made that promise, last fall. The union said progress has stalled under Brian Niccol<\/a>, the company\u2019s new chairman and CEO.<\/p>\n Starbucks said Wednesday that it\u2019s disappointed the union plans to strike instead of returning to the bargaining table.<\/p>\n \u201cAny agreement needs to reflect the reality that Starbucks already offers the best job in retail, including more than $30 an hour on average in pay and benefits for hourly partners,\u201d Starbucks spokeswoman Jaci Anderson said Wednesday.<\/p>\n In a letter to Starbucks employees released Wednesday, Starbucks\u2019 Chief Partner Officer Sara Kelly said the union has proposed a 65% pay increase immediately and a 77% increase over three years, with additional payments for things like weekends or days when Starbucks runs promotions. Kelly also said some proposals would significantly alter Starbucks\u2019 operations, such as giving workers the ability to shut down mobile ordering if a store has more than five orders in the queue.<\/p>\n \u201cThese aren\u2019t serious, evidence-based proposals,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n The union said Starbucks is unfairly lumping together various economic proposals from the union to arrive at those pay raise figures. <\/p>\n Unionized baristas also said they don\u2019t always get the 20 hours per week they need to be eligible for Starbucks\u2019 benefits. They point to Starbucks\u2019 generous pay package<\/a> for Niccol, which saw him make $95.8 million<\/a> in 2024. The package included $75 million in equity to make up for what he forfeited by his abrupt departure from Chipotle, his previous employer.<\/p>\n \u201cOur fight is about actually making Starbucks jobs the best jobs in retail. Right now, it\u2019s only the best job in retail for Brian Niccol,\u201d said Jasmine Leli, a three-year Starbucks barista and strike captain from Buffalo, New York. Leli said starting pay for baristas in most states is $15.25 per hour.<\/p>\n The strike would echo previous labor actions against the company. In 2023, thousands of Starbucks workers at more than 200 stores walked off the job<\/a> on Red Cup Day. Last year, a five-day strike<\/a> ahead of Christmas closed 59 U.S. stores.<\/p>\n In her letter, Kelly emphasized that most company-owned stores as well as 7,000 licensed locations in places like airports will remain open if there is a strike.<\/p>\n Starbucks shares rose nearly 4% in Wednesday trading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starbucks\u2019 union members have voted to strike at the company\u2019s U.S. stores next week unless it finalizes a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[36346,28,793,146087,1929,11738,146088,20999,146089,2194,30846,795,2003,2002],"class_list":["post-273731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-brian-niccol","tag-business","tag-general-news","tag-jasmine-leli","tag-labor","tag-labor-unions","tag-laxman-narasimhan","tag-retail-and-wholesale","tag-sara-kelly","tag-starbucks-corp","tag-strikes","tag-u-s-news","tag-wa-state-wire","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}