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The walkouts launched by Starbucks (SBUX+0.09%) workers pushing for better working conditions and wages are ramping up to reach dozens of stores and several major metro areas.
Workers United, which represents more than 525 stores, said employees were striking for better pay and benefits, to protest unfair labor practices, and to resolve litigation with Starbucks. Its five days of escalating strikes began on Friday, initially affecting about 10 of the coffee chain’s thousands of stores in the U.S.
But Starbucks workers closed down almost 50 stores on Sunday, the union said, as employees — and some elected officials — joined picket lines. So far, workers in a dozen metro areas have picketed, including in Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Denver, and Columbus, Ohio. Workers in Boston, Portland, and Texas’s Dallas-Fort Worth plan to strike on Monday.
“The holiday season should be magical at Starbucks, but for too many of us, there’s a darker side to the peppermint mochas and gingerbread lattes,” Arloa Fluhr, a Starbucks employee and bargaining delegate from Illinois, said in a statement.
“I’m a mom of three, including my daughter who is diabetic. I know what it’s like to panic because my hours were slashed and I won’t be able to pay my bills and could lose access to healthcare, including my daughter’s insulin,” Flurh added.
The walkouts come after talks to establish a “foundational framework” for collective bargaining agreements at its stores fell short after months of negotiations. Workers United said the company hasn’t presented a “serious economic proposal” and that hundreds of active unfair labor practice charges are in effect.
Starbucks told Quartz last week that Workers United “prematurely” halted bargaining and 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. On Friday, the company said it was ready to continue negotiations but needed the union to return to the bargaining table.