Washington DC—Just in time for the holidays, over 10,000 Starbucks Baristas voted to strike at up to 537 stores across the country. The vote comes after top management made a final offer of a paltry 2% raise on a contract negotiated over the last 8 months. Baristas in three States will stop brewing lattes and blending frappuccinos starting Friday morning at the start of the busiest shopping weekend before Christmas. The escalating strike will begin in Seattle, LA, and Chicago, and will spread to other locations across the country.
The announcement came on Thursday, 19 December night during a webinar attended in person by over 500 barista union representatives of Starbucks Workers United Union from Los Angeles stores of the coffee giant. It was viewed by 1000s of baristas online. The strike is scheduled to last for 5 days until Christmas eve, and will hit Starbucks corporate offices deep in its pockets during its most busy and profitable time of the year.
Sylvia Baldwin, the lead contract negotiator on behalf of the union asked the assembly of baristas, “How do we handle disrespect?” And to answer her own question she described how the last 8 months since April 2024, their contract negotiation team had bargained in earnest with the company lawyers but was slapped down with the offer that “was [valued] less than the cost of a stick of gum.”
Baldwin also noted that Starbucks representatives did not offer any improvements to the healthcare options it offers its baristas. Starbucks is the second largest fast food corporation in the country. McDonalds Corporation is number one.
Another spokeswoman at the webinar, Jazmine Riley noted that corporate managers are given 18 weeks of maternity leave while baristas are given only 6 weeks of maternity leave. Brian Niccol the new Starbucks CEO was offered a $113 million pay package, more than 10,000 times the average pay of baristas.
The Starbucks strike announcement came as another corporate behemoth, Amazon, watched as its drivers walked away from their delivery routes in response to a negotiation stalemate in Amazon worker pay, worker’s conditions, environmental, and anti-democratic policies at Amazon warehouses. In that strike 1000s of Union represented workers began picketing on the same day and plan to continue striking until next week. The issues raised by Amazon workers parallel the narratives of Starbucks baristas and resonate a common theme in their workplaces: workers are paid less than it economically possible for them to live in the economy.
Workers in the service industry are increasingly standing up for their own interests and forming or joining unions. Workers are no longer willing to be a silent partner in creating the vast amounts and record wealth that corporate owners and managers enjoy while worker compensation remains below a living wage, healthcare remains unaffordable, and corporate CEOs and management receive compensation thousands of times greater than the average worker.
“The corporate big wigs have no idea what’s coming,” said J. J. Dezion, a spokeswoman at the webinar. She further added that Starbucks Workers United Union had reached a tipping point with barristas, having reached 537 locations which had voted to unionize and representing over 10,000 baristas, a record which was growing. Seven additional locations voted to unionize last week.
The meteoric rise of union representation at Starbucks locations would have been unthinkable just four years ago. There are more than double the number of unionized locations compared to two years ago when only 200 stores had voted to unionize. The first Starbucks locations voting to unionize were in Buffalo NY in December 2021, just 3 years ago.
A press release issued by Starbucks Workers United Union urged allies to become involved in worker’s issues and to support their efforts to improve their benefits. The press release exposed a corporate culture of callousness towards baristas while living high off their labor.
“Starbucks has lost its way. We know that because we see it every day in our stores. We also know that because this year Starbucks gave Brian Niccols a compensation package of $113 million, while also giving its baristas paltry raises – which for most baristas are the equivalent of 30 and 50 cents an hour. It’s insulting and shows their failing to value the people who earn their profits and run their stores.”
The press release also pointed out the elitist culture of its headquarters staff, in effect, comparing them to feudal lords, “Our workplaces are Starbucks stores, where we interact with customers every day. Brian Niccol’s office is a private jet, and executives work out of cushy executive headquarters. We need allies and customers to join us and show them who really runs Starbucks.”
