It’s been four years since workers first unionized in Buffalo, but workers still don’t have a contract.
Sharon Zhang || More than 1,000 Starbucks workers across over 40 U.S. cities launched a strike on Thursday, putting the company on blast for stonewalling unionized workers at the bargaining table for six months now despite having the widest CEO-to-worker pay gap in the country.
The strike spans from coast to coast, encompassing 65 stores, according to Starbucks Workers United. There is no set end date to the strike, and the union says workers at over 550 unionized stores are prepared to help escalate the demonstration to make it the “largest, longest strike in company history” if Starbucks doesn’t meet their demands.
The strike was timed to begin on Starbucks’s “Red Cup Day,” when the company launches its yearly holiday cup. It is typically one of the best sales days for the company.
“We’re turning the Red Cup Season into the Red Cup Rebellion. Starbucks’ refusal to settle a fair union contract and end union busting is forcing us to take drastic action,” said Dachi Spoltore, a barista at the Amos Hall Starbucks in Pittsburgh who joined the strike.
Despite workers having first unionized in Buffalo, New York, four years ago, the company still refuses to finish bargaining for a first contract, workers say. The company’s last contract offer was in April and was roundly rejected, as the union said it didn’t address key concerns like health care benefits, wage raises, or understaffing.
That was the last offer from the company at the bargaining table. It’s been six months since, and workers overwhelmingly voted to strike earlier this month.
Starbucks Workers United has asked supporters to boycott Starbucks for the duration of the strike. The union says its contract demands would cost the company less than an average days’ worth of sales, and less than four months’ of its CEO’s $96 million compensation in 2024. The AFL-CIO found that Starbucks’s CEO, Brian Niccol, made 6,666 times more than the company’s average worker pay — the widest CEO-to-worker pay gap of any of the country’s 500 largest public companies.
“If Starbucks keeps stonewalling a fair contract and refusing to end union-busting, they’ll see their business grind to a halt,” said Michelle Eisen. Eisen is a spokesperson for Starbucks Workers United and one of the Buffalo union’s founding members.
“Starbucks knows where we stand. We’ve been clear and consistent on what baristas need to succeed: more take-home pay, better hours, resolving legal issues,” Eisen said. “Bring us NEW proposals that address these issues so we can finalize a contract. Until then, you’ll see us and our allies on the picket line.”
The lack of a contract has drawn the attention of Congress. Dragging out the bargaining process is a common anti-union tactic from employers, who overwhelmingly benefit from a longer negotiation timeline.
On Monday, over 100 lawmakers, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), sent a letter to Niccol expressing concern that Starbucks is exercising a “troubling” pattern of union busting. Lawmakers pointed out that Starbucks made $3.6 billion in profit last year, and enriched shareholders and executives by spending $5 billion on stock buyback and dividends — which lawmakers labelled as “extravagant spending.” At the same time, the company is closing hundreds of stores and conducting mass layoffs.
“It is clear that Starbucks has the money to reach a fair agreement with its workers,” the lawmakers wrote. “Starbucks must reverse course from its current posture, resolve its existing labor disputes, and bargain a fair contract in good faith with these employees.”
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