Every year around the holidays, Starbucks across the country has a “Red Cup Day”. They hand reusable, free holiday cups to anyone that purchases a holiday drink. If you went to get your free cup, you may have noticed a disruption. This is because members of the Starbucks Workers United are protesting.
On November 13th, this year’s “Red Cup Day”, over 1,000 unionized Starbucks baristas from 41 different cities staged a walk out. So, why are Starbucks workers on strike? The protests started because of blocked contract negotiations. Contract negotiations are the process of agreeing on and discussing specific terms of a legally binding employment agreement between employers and employees. The contracts include not just salary but benefits, responsibilities, and growth opportunities. The contract negotiations for Starbucks began in April 2024. While Starbucks executives and employees did score 33 tentative agreements on non-economic workplace issues, they did not agree on anything relating to economic workplace issues. Starbucks baristas proposed a number of economic programs to include more benefits and increased wages. Starbucks eventually put forward a contract that would not address the most important issues of staffing and work hours. Starbucks then retracted on the earlier agreed-on path ahead. This led the Starbucks Workers United Union to file a national unfair labor practice (ULP). Starbucks then began to implement new policies without bargaining or notifying the union.
The Starbucks union is demanding certain things. They want better hours to improve staffing in stores, higher pay, and resolutions for over a hundred outstanding unfair labor practice charges for union busting. You’ve definitely noticed the long lines outside of Starbucks stores. This is because most stores are chronically understaffed. Somehow, baristas are still not getting enough hours or pay to support themselves. Starbucks has also engaged in union busting by firing union organizers, closing unionized stores, threatening to withhold benefits, withholding wages, spying on employees, and refusing to bargain in good faith. The NLRB, or National Labor Relations Board, has found Starbucks guilty of over 500 labor law violations and has issued multiple complaints against the company. Many Starbucks employees are rightfully angry at the lack of pay and long hours they have to work. The CEO of Starbucks, Brian Niccol, made 95.8 million dollars in 2024, while median baristas earned just 14,674. The CEO-to-worker ratio is 6,666-to-1. Starbucks can definitely afford to pay their employees more. Starbucks baristas plan to protest when the company meets their demands.
While you may not think Starbucks barista isn’t an important job, everyone deserves to be paid a living wage. So, until the strike is over and the union’s demands are met, make your coffee at home!
