What to Know
- Union Starbucks baristas will begin striking on Friday, Dec. 20.
- Strikes will take place in three major cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
- The walkouts are expected to spread each day reaching hundreds of stores across the county by Christmas Eve.
Starbucks baristas will begin an escalating five-day strike beginning Friday morning, Starbucks Workers United announced Thursday.
The union authorized the strike Tuesday after saying the coffee company "backtracked on the path forward they agreed to with workers and their union over the future of organizing and collective bargaining at the coffee giant."
The strikes will transpire in three major U.S. cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle. The walkouts are expected to spread each day progressively before reaching hundreds of stores across the county by Christmas Eve, unless an agreement is reached.
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"Since the February commitment, the company has repeatedly pledged publicly that it intended to reach contracts by the end of the year, but it has yet to present workers with a serious economic proposal. The walkouts will hit during the final weekend of holiday shopping before Christmas, traditionally one of Starbucks’ busiest customer traffic times of the year," the union said in a press release.
Starbucks and Workers United have spent hundreds of hours this year at the bargaining table, and both sides have put forward dozens of tentative agreements, the union wrote.
“We were ready to bring the foundational framework home this year, but Starbucks wasn’t,” said Lynne Fox, President of Workers United. “After all Starbucks has said about how they value partners throughout the system, we refuse to accept zero immediate investment in baristas’ wages and no resolution of the hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practices. Union baristas know their value, and they’re not going to accept a proposal that doesn’t treat them as true partners.”
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The coffee giant responded to the strike by saying they're ready to continue negotiations, but "need the union to return to the table."
In a statement, Starbucks wrote:
"Workers United delegates prematurely ended our bargaining session this week. It is disappointing they didn’t return to the table given the progress we’ve made to date. Since April we’ve held more than nine bargaining sessions over 20 days. We’ve reached over thirty (30) meaningful agreements on hundreds of topics Workers United delegates told us were important to them, including many economic issues. We are focused on enhancing the partner (employee) experience, with over $3 billion invested in the last three years. Starbucks offers a competitive average pay of over $18 per hour, and best-in-class benefits. Taken together they are worth an average of $30 per hour for baristas who work at least 20 hours per week. Benefits include health care, free college tuition, paid family leave and company stock grants. No other retailer offers this kind of comprehensive pay and benefits package."
In Los Angeles, the strikes will begin Friday at 10 a.m., at the Alameda and Shelton Starbucks location in Burbank, according to the union.
