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Starbucks (SBUX+0.74%) workers in three major cities are launching pre-Christmas strikes on Friday as negotiations with their employer stall.
Workers United, which represents more than 525 stores, said employees were going on strike to fight for better pay and benefits, protest unfair labor practices, and resolve litigation with Starbucks. Ninety-eight percent of union partners voted in favor of the strikes, Workers United said.
The union said that five days of escalating strikes will kick off Friday and continue until Dec. 24, beginning in what it called three of Starbucks’ “most important markets” — Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago. About 10 of the company’s thousands of stores in the U.S. have been affected.
The walkouts are expected to ramp up over the next few days and reach “hundreds of stores” across the country by Christmas Eve, according to the union. For now, there has been “no significant impact” on Starbucks’ operations, according to company spokesperson Phil Gee.
An escalation can be avoided if Starbucks and the union are able to come together and create a “foundational framework” to reach collective bargaining agreements for its stores.
The parties agreed to do just that in February, but Workers United said the company hasn’t presented a “comprehensive economic package.” The union also says hundreds of active unfair labor practice charges are in effect and that liabilities of more than $100 million are outstanding.
Starbucks said that Workers United “prematurely” halted bargaining earlier this week, and it touted the 30 “meaningful agreements” the parties had come to. The company also said the union’s demands for an immediate 64% wage hike, which would increase to 77% over the term of a three-year deal, would be unsustainable.
The company said it is ready to continue negotiations but needs the union to return to the bargaining table.
“Starbucks can’t get back on track as a company until it finalizes a fair contract that invests in its workforce,” Philadelphia barista and Workers United bargaining delegate Silvia Baldwin said in a statement Tuesday. Baldwin slammed new CEO Brian Niccol’s compensation package, which has a base salary of $1.6 million.
“Right now, I’m making $16.50 an hour,” she said. “Meanwhile, Brian Niccol’s compensation package is worth $57,000 an hour. The company just announced I’m only getting a 2.5% raise next year, $0.40 an hour, which is hardly anything. It’s one Starbucks drink per week. Starbucks needs to invest in the baristas who make Starbucks run.”
The scattered strikes at Starbucks come just a day after thousands of Amazon workers launched their own strikes. Employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters at seven locations across four cities have walked off the job. At the same time, German workers have coordinated their own strikes in a handful of cities.
Amazon (AMZN+2.39%) has slammed the Teamsters’ walkouts as an attempt to “mislead the public” and push a “false narrative” that they represent thousands of Amazon employees and rivers. The nation’s largest online retailer also contends that the strike itself is illegal.