Starbucks baristas at 50 locations throughout the US are starting a three-day strike on Friday, saying the company isn't bargaining fairly with recently unionized stores.
Organizers say the planned strike will involve more than 1,000 workers, making it the biggest multi-day work stoppage ever by Starbucks Workers United, the labor group that's prevailed in elections at about 270 of the chain's cafés this year. Workers at 50 locations that aren't stopping work for three days plan to support the effort by striking for a day or two, according to the union.
The walkout underlines the rising tension between the coffee giant and its union employees, who have tried to secure a collective-bargaining agreement for more than a year without success.
"We just want to show Starbucks that we're going to continue escalating until they respect our right to organize and actually come to the table to bargain in good faith," said Maggie Carter, a leader in the nationwide union campaign. "As long as Starbucks continues to fight us, we're going to continue to fight back."
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Shares of Starbucks fell as much as 1.7% as trading opened in New York on Friday.
Carter said union contract talks at her Knoxville, Tennessee, store began last week and ended within minutes when company representatives walked out over a dispute about the union's desire for some workers to be able to participate via Zoom. Organizers have been pushing Starbucks for better pay and protections against benefit cuts, among other things. That location isn't part of the strike, but Carter is helping coordinate the work stoppage.
While the campaign has so far organized only a small fraction of Starbucks' 9,000 corporate-run US locations, it has spread rapidly across the country this year. It helped inspire similar first-ever organizing victories at other companies, such as Apple, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Trader Joe's.
However, the pace of new Starbucks unionization petitions has slowed in recent months, as workers allege the company has been retaliating in stores and stonewalling them at the bargaining table. Starbucks Workers United won its first election at a café in Buffalo, New York, a year ago, and those workers still don't have a union contract.
US National Labor Relations Board regional directors have issued dozens of complaints accusing Starbucks of breaking the law to defeat the union campaign, including by excluding unionized stores from new benefits.
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Agency judges recently ordered the company to reinstate fired activists in Michigan and Kansas, and a federal judge issued an injunction ordering the reinstatement of seven union supporters at a Memphis, Tennessee, store. NLRB members ruled last month that Starbucks illegally refused to negotiate with the union at a café in its Seattle hometown.
Starbucks has denied wrongdoing and said that all claims of anti-union activity are "categorically false." The company has filed its own claims with the NLRB accusing the union of refusing to negotiate in good faith. During a one-day strike last month, a Starbucks spokesperson said the company would respect employees' right to lawfully protest.
"In those stores where partners have elected union representation, we have been willing and continue to urge the union to meet us at the bargaining table to move the process forward in good faith," the company said in a Nov. 17 statement.
Pro-union employees see pressure from the public as leverage to help them win concessions from the company. The union has so far stopped short of calling for a general Starbucks boycott, but this month urged customers not to purchase the company's gift cards this holiday season.
—With assistance from Debarati Roy and Garrett Keyes
