Workers at Starbucks stores began a five-day strike on Friday to protest the lack of progress in contract negotiations with the company.
The strike by baristas and other workers is scheduled to take place in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle, and could spread to hundreds of stores across the country by Christmas Eve. Starbucks Workers United, the union that organizes Starbucks baristas, said at least 10 stores had closed as of noon Friday.
In Los Angeles, striking Starbucks barista Kathy Pritchard told CBS News Friday that workers are demanding “a livable, fair wage…they should be able to afford rent, food and health care.” Ta.
Pritchard said the 1.5% annual raises offered by Starbucks won’t even keep up with inflation.
“The reality is it’s a pay cut,” Pritchard said. “It’s a nominal raise, but it’s only in name.”
Frederick J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
The strike came a day after the Teamsters union announce a strike At seven Amazon shipping hubs.
Starbucks said early Friday there was “no material impact” to store operations.
“While we understand there is disruption in a small number of our stores, the overwhelming majority of our U.S. stores are operating as usual and serving our customers,” the Seattle-based coffee giant said in a statement. mentioned in.
Employees at 535 company-operated stores in the U.S. voted to unionize, but Starbucks has nearly 10,000 company-operated stores in the United States.
Starbucks Workers United, which launched a unionization effort in 2021, said Starbucks failed to respect unions. The promise we made in February The company plans to conclude a collective bargaining agreement by the end of this year. The union also wants the company to resolve outstanding legal issues, including hundreds of issues. unfair labor practice crime It was submitted by the worker to the National Labor Relations Board.
The union is working with Starbucks’ chairman CEO Brian NicolHe joined the company in September and could earn more than $100 million in his first year with the company. However, the company recently said it has proposed an economic stimulus package that would result in no new wage increases for unionized baristas at this time, but a 1.5% increase in the future.
“Our CEO is now the face of corporate greed in America,” Pritchard told CBS News.
“Union baristas know their value and will not accept an offer that does not treat them as true partners,” said Lynn Fox, president of Starbucks Workers United.
Starbucks said Workers United prematurely ended this week’s bargaining session.
“We are prepared to continue negotiating toward an agreement. We need the union to return to the table,” the company said in a statement.
Negotiations are currently underway with a focus on wage increases. Starbucks said it is committed to increasing annual wages for unionized employees by at least 1.5%. Even if a company gives non-union members a lower raise in a given year, it still gives union members a 1.5% raise.
Starbucks said its union wants to raise the minimum wage for hourly workers by 64% immediately and 77% over the course of a three-year contract.
Starbucks said it already pays workers an average of $18 an hour. With benefits such as health care, free college tuition, and paid family leave, Starbucks’ pay package is worth an average of $30 an hour for baristas who work at least 20 hours a week.
This is not the first time Starbucks has faced a strike during the busy holiday season. By November 2023, thousands of employees across more than 200 stores. Missed Red Cup Daywhen the company typically distributes thousands of reusable cups. Hundreds of workers went on strike in June 2023 to protest Starbucks’ union statement. forbidden pride display In some stores.
The union and the company took different stances when they returned to the bargaining table earlier this year and promised to reach an agreement. Starbucks said it has held nine bargaining sessions with unions since April and reached more than 30 agreements with unions.
But Starbucks has struggled this year with declining sales and customer traffic in the U.S. and abroad, and CEO Laxman Narasimhan, who had promised to work toward a collective bargaining agreement, was fired this summer. Mr. Nicol called off a unionization effort when he was CEO of Chipotle, but promised in a letter in September that he would work constructively with unions.
Currently, Starbucks and the union appear to be at an impasse.
Fatemeh Alhajaboudi, a Texas-born Starbucks barista and chief negotiator, said in a statement, “Starbucks has invested millions of dollars in executive talent in a year that has given us a viable approach to the baristas who run the company.” “We were unable to present an economic proposal.” .
Starbucks stock fell 1% in afternoon trading.
