Some Starbucks baristas go on strike in Chicago; walkouts planned in 2 other cities
Some Starbucks baristas went on strike in Chicago on Friday, with their union warning the walkouts could spread to hundreds of cafes by Christmas Eve if the coffee giant does not meet workers’ demands at the bargaining table. Baristas were also planning walkouts Friday in Los Angeles and in Seattle, where Starbucks is headquartered.
In Chicago, baristas at the company’s store at 5964 N. Ridge Avenue in Edgewater, one of the first in the city to unionize more than two years ago, were on strike Friday morning.
“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,” Starbucks Workers United said in a news release Thursday evening.
The strikes this week come three years after baristas won their first election at a cafe in Buffalo, New York, and more than two years since the Starbucks union push came to Chicago, where baristas first voted to unionize in May 2022. Starbucks Workers United said it now represents more than 11,000 workers in more than 535 cafes nationwide across 45 states and Washington, D.C.
The union accused the company of backtracking on a February agreement to come together on a “foundational framework” to finalize a first contract and resolve legal issues between the union and company. Prior to the February agreement, union baristas had long accused the company — which has faced a litany of allegations of labor law violations from organizers and federal labor officials throughout the union campaign — of stonewalling negotiations.
In a statement, Starbucks spokesperson Jay Go-Guasch accused union bargainers of “prematurely” ending bargaining sessions earlier in the week.
“We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements,” Go-Guasch said. “We need the union to return to the table.”
But the union said the company had offered baristas an economic package that included no immediate new wage increases for union baristas and a guarantee of only 1.5% in future years.
“It is disappointing they didn’t return to the table given the progress we’ve made to date,” Go-Guasch said, saying the two sides had met in more than nine bargaining sessions since April. “We’ve reached over 30 meaningful agreements on hundreds of topics Workers United delegates told us were important to them, including many economic issues.”
Starbucks said that the 1.5% raise guarantee was only a floor for future raises, not a ceiling. The company said its baristas make an average wage of more than $18 an hour.
Starbucks baristas have struck intermittently in Chicago and elsewhere since the union push began. Over the last two years, workers have struck some union stores on the company’s annual Red Cup Day holiday promotion.
This year’s strikes come a day after the International Brotherhood of Teamsters launched a series of holiday-season strikes of Amazon delivery drivers nationwide, including in northwest suburban Skokie.
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