A strike of Starbucks workers, expected to last until Christmas Eve, has now expanded to 10 major U.S. cities – bad news for last-minute shoppers looking to stop for a coffee break.
The walkouts are organized by Workers United, a union representing over 10,000 baristas, to protest lack of progress in contract negotiations with the company. Workers have urged customers not to buy any items from the popular chain until the action ends on December 24. Those pictured on the picket lines have been shown holding signs reading: “no contract, no coffee.”
The strike comes after similar action was taken during the holiday season by warehouse workers at giant retailer Amazon, who walked out of seven delivery hubs on Thursday.
The Starbucks strike, which began Friday, initially closed cafes in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle – where the chain is headquartered – but has now added locations in New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis.
Walkouts are also occurring in Columbus, Denver, Pittsburgh, and New Jersey, though Workers United did not specify where the New Jersey walkout was occurring.
The strike has been organized over the five-day period during the busy holiday season with the intention of disrupting the company’s Christmas sales. Workers United warned on Friday that the strike could reach "hundreds of stores" by Tuesday, Christmas Eve. It’s unclear when the Amazon warehouse worker strike will end.
“Workers are on strike in response to Starbucks backtracking on our agreed-upon ‘path forward’ over the future of organizing and collective bargaining,” read a post from the union. “During negotiations this month, the company offered an insulting economic package with NO immediate wage increases.”
Workers United said the strike action comes after Starbucks failed to honor a commitment to reach a labor agreement this year. The union also wants the company to resolve outstanding legal issues, including hundreds of unfair labor practice charges that workers have filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
The union has noted that Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who started in September, could make more than $100 million in his first year on the job.
But it said the company recently proposed an economic package with no new wage increases for unionized baristas now, and a 1.5 percent increase in future years.
Starbucks – which employs some 200,000 workers – downplayed the impact of the strikes on stores, stating that only an estimated 10 stores out of 10,000 across the US had not opened as of Friday due to strike action. The company claimed Workers United prematurely ended a bargaining session this week.
“We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements. We need the union to return to the table,” Starbucks said in a statement.
Similarly, the Amazon workers first joined picket lines on Thursday after the retail giant ignored a Sunday deadline the Teamsters union had set for contract negotiations.
Those strikes are taking place at three delivery hubs in Southern California, and one each in San Francisco, New York City, Atlanta and Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement.
The Teamsters haven’t formally indicated when the actions will end, but Vinnie Perrone, the president of a local Teamsters union in metro New York, said on Thursday that the walkout would continue “as long as it takes.”
The union, which says it represents 10,000 Amazon workers at 10 facilities, said workers in more locations were prepared to join the fight.
