Starbucks workers at 100 stores begin three-day strike in campaign to unionize
Caroline Lerczak, Starbucks Genesee St. Shift Supervisor, on the formation of the first Starbucks union in the US.
Starbucks workers are on strike again.
Starbucks United Workers, the group organizing unionization efforts in the coffee chainsaid Friday that more than 1,000 baristas in stores across the country are taking part in a three-day strike, calling the walkout “the longest collective action of our campaign so far.”
The group posted an interactive google map showing more than 100 points of sale where workers are participating in the strike. The strike is an effort to “double down” after an earlier action on November 17, when workers at 110 Starbucks stores staged a one-day walkout. That strike coincided with the company’s annual Red Cup Day, a holiday celebration in which the store gives customers reusable red cups with the purchase of certain beverages.
| Heart | Security | Latest | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEX | STARBUCKS CORP. | 98.79 | -1.20 | -1.20% |
The walkout also comes after Starbucks closed its Broadway East and Denny Way. seattle location, which was the first store in the city to unionize. The company said the store was closed due to “security incidents.”
STARBUCKS TO CLOSE FIRST SEATTLE STORE TO UNIONATE, CITTING ‘SAFETY AND SECURITY INCIDENTS’
Images of baristas picketing were posted on social media.
The Seattle store closed on December 9, the first anniversary of Starbucks employees in Buffalo, New York. making history by unionizing.
| Heart | Security | Latest | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEX | STARBUCKS CORP. | 98.79 | -1.20 | -1.20% |
Angry union organizers charged that Starbucks “decided to step up its anti-union campaign by closing the Broadway & Denny’s location, the first organized store in Seattle, on the first anniversary of Starbucks’ first union election.”
“Starbucks stepped up their fight against the unions, so the workers are going to step up their fight for a contract,” the union said Friday in a news release.
Starbucks worker Kyle Trainer uses a megaphone outside a Starbucks coffee shop in San Francisco during a nationwide walkout on November 17, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Workers carry strike signs in front of a unionized Starbucks Coffee in Anaheim, California on November 17, 2022. (Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Record via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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“Starbucks sent a clear message when it closed the Broadway and Denny’s store,” said Michelle Eisen, a Buffalo barista who is leading unionization efforts. “They’re stepping up their anti-union efforts, so we’re stepping up too. We demand fair staffing, an end to store closures, and for Starbucks to deal with us in good faith.”
The union notes that the National Labor Relations Board issued more than 45 official complaints against Starbucks covering more than 900 alleged federal labor law violations, calling Starbucks “one of the worst federal labor law violators in modern history.” from United States”.
The company told FOX Business: “It is unfortunate that Workers United continues to spread misleading claims while disrupting the Starbucks Experience that our partners and customers have come to love and expect.”
“Despite these delaying tactics, we remain focused on working together and engaging meaningfully and directly with the union to make Starbucks a company that works for everyone, and we urge Workers United to deliver on its promises to members as we move the negotiation process,” said a Starbucks spokesman.
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Striking workers have claimed that Starbucks employees are “underpaid, forced to operate perpetually understaffed stores and have no consistent hours they can rely on.”
They have demanded “the right to organize a union free from bullying and fear” and accused the company of anti-union tactics.
Starbucks said the vast majority of stores where protests have taken place have remained open and that it respects the right of workers to protest. The company added that less than 3% of its 9,000 company-operated stores in the US have sought to unionize.
Jon Brown of FOX Business contributed to this report.