Thousands of Starbucks workers are gearing up to vote on whether to go on strike next week.
The strike authorization vote is set to begin Friday and will remain open for several days, with Starbucks Workers United expected to share results after voting ends. Employees represented by the union have staged two national strikes over the last year, most recently in May to protest Starbucks’ new dress code. Thousands of workers also walked off the job in December 2024.
As the voting gets underway, the union is also planning a series of rallies and pickets over the weekend outside Starbucks stores in dozens of U.S. cities.
Starbucks Workers United originated in Buffalo, New York, in 2021 and now represents 12,000 workers in approximately 550 Starbucks cafes across the country.
A union spokesperson confirmed that contract negotiations between Starbucks and Workers United began in May 2024 but fell apart in December. The group entered mediation in February, which ended two months later with Workers United rejecting Starbucks’ contract proposal. The union says it has secured 33 tentative agreements from Starbucks, but maintains that the vast majority are noneconomic proposals.
The union spokesperson said the coffee giant has since refused to come to the table with a new proposal that meets workers’ demands, which is why negotiations have stalled.
For its part, Starbucks says it has engaged in nearly 200 hours of negotiations but claims that Workers United ultimately presented union members with an incomplete outline of single-store contracts to vote on.
“Workers United only represents around 4% of our partners but chose to walk away from the bargaining table,” Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson told CBS News in an email statement. “If they’re ready to come back, we’re ready to talk.”
What workers want
The workers’ demands are threefold, according to the union — increased hours and higher take-home pay, as well as a resolution from Starbucks for what the union refers to as “unfair labor practice charges” for union busting.
“Too many baristas still aren’t getting enough hours to pay the bills or meet the threshold for benefits,” the union says in its statement of demands on its website.
Starbucks Workers United has filed hundreds of unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks with the National Labor Relations Board, including over its dress code.
The union has not specified the size of the pay increase it is seeking. Starbucks said employees receive $30 an hour in pay and benefits. Store managers, or “coffeehouse leaders” as they’re referred to by the retailer, are salaried. The company contends that nearly 85% of its employees work their preferred hours.
Limited impact
Susan Schurman, a distinguished professor at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, said previous Workers United strikes have had a limited effect on persuading the company to return to the bargaining table.
“The basic problem is that not enough Starbucks stores are organized yet so that a strike inflicts serious financial or publicity damage to the company,” Schurman said in an email.
Last month, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol announced that the company was shuttering certain locations and cutting about 900 jobs. The closures affected 59 union stores, according to Starbucks Workers United.
In a letter to employees at the time, Niccol framed the decision to close stores as part of a “Back to Starbucks” plan, an effort he initiated in 2024 to revitalize sales and foot traffic at the chain’s coffee shops. The plan includes adding more personal touches to the customer store experience, like handwritten notes on Starbuck’s cups.
Starbucks Workers United has openly questioned whether Niccol’s strategy is working, whereas Starbucks has painted the plan as a success.
“The facts show that ‘Back to Starbucks’ is making the experience better for both customers and partners,” Anderson said. “We’ve invested more than $500M to improve our coffeehouse staffing, training, and support on top of offering the best job in retail, with pay and benefits averaging over $30 per hour for hourly partners.”
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