Workers at some Starbucks stores started a five-day strike Friday in three U.S. cities, including Chicago, to protest lack of progress in contract negotiations with the company.
Starbucks Workers United, the union organizing Starbucks’ workers, said at least 10 of the coffee retailer’s locations were closed nationwide as of midday Friday.
It declined to name the Chicago-area stores where workers are striking besides the Edgewater location at 5964 N. Ridge Ave., which was closed. Protesters were also in front of a Bucktown store at Armitage and Hoyne, which also was closed Friday. And the Starbucks in Evanston on Main Street was closed, a worker at the store confirmed by phone Friday afternoon.
As of Friday midday, Chicago’s six other unionized stores were open and taking online orders, according to Starbucks’ website.
As of April, 23 stores in Illinois had organized. There were nine unionized in Chicago and Evanston, according to the pro-labor group More Perfect Union. More have tried to organize, but four stores have rejected the move to unionize, including the world’s largest branch, Chicago Reserve Roastery, 646 N. Michigan Ave. Workers there voted against unionizing in August 2023, in a major setback for organizers.
On Friday, about a dozen Starbucks workers picketed outside the Edgewater store carrying signs that read, “No contract, no coffee,” “Jingle bells, coffee sells, so why are we all broke?” and “Please Mr. Scrooge, give us a living wage.”
The strikes also were expected in Los Angeles and Seattle and could spread to hundreds of stores across the country by Christmas Eve.
Starbucks stores in the Chicago area that have unionized, according to More Perfect Union:
55th Street and Woodlawn Avenue, Hyde ParkRidge Avenue and Clark Street, EdgewaterArmitage and Hoyne, BucktownBryn Mawr and Winthrop, EdgewaterLincoln and Jersey, Lincoln VillageBroadway and Devon, near Loyola UniversityIrving Park Road and Ashland, North CenterHalsted and Monroe, GreektownChicago Avenue and Main Street, Evanston
Starbucks on Friday morning said there was no significant impact to store operations. “We are aware of disruption at a small handful of stores, but the overwhelming majority of our U.S. stores remain open and serving customers as normal,” Phil Gee, Starbucks spokesperson, said in a statement.
Shep Searl, a barista picketing at the Edgewater store on Friday, said, “The thing we’re really fighting for are wages.”
Searl, who has worked at Starbucks for more than eight years, said its employees last year got raises of 2% to 3% that can’t keep up with inflation. Meanwhile, the company’s CEO got a $10 million bonus. “We know they have money to give and they should be giving it to the workers. We cannot continue to live on wages that were considered good six or seven years ago,” Searl said.
Starbucks Workers United, the union that has organized workers at 535 company-owned U.S. stores since 2021, said Starbucks has failed to honor a commitment made in February to reach a labor agreement this year. The union also wants the company to resolve outstanding legal issues, including hundreds of unfair labor practice charges that workers have filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
The union noted that Starbucks’ new Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who started in September, could make more than $100 million in his first year on the job. But the company recently proposed an economic package with no new wage increases for unionized baristas now and a 1.5% increase in future years, the union said.
Searl said, “The reason I’m in this union is because I love my job and I care about Starbucks. By negotiating and hearing the perspective of the workers, they can make the company the best it can be. We believe we can win this contract. We believe [Starbucks] can be as good as they claim to be.”
“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,” said Arloa Fluhr, a Workers United bargaining delegate from Champaign in a statement. She has worked off and on at Starbucks for 18 years.
“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 health care, including my daughter’s insulin. That’s why we’re steadfast in our demands for Starbucks to invest in baristas like me,” Fluhr said.
“Union baristas know their value, and they’re not going to accept a proposal that doesn’t treat them as true partners,” said Lynne Fox, president of Workers United.
Seattle-based Starbucks said Workers United prematurely ended a bargaining session this week. Starbucks has nearly 10,000 company-owned stores in the U.S.
“We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements. We need the union to return to the table,” Starbucks said in a statement.
Starbucks said it already offers pay and benefits — including free college tuition and paid family leave — worth $30 per hour for baristas who work at least 20 hours per week.
The strikes aren’t the first during Starbucks’ busy holiday season. In November 2023, thousands of workers at more than 200 stores walked out on Red Cup Day, a day when the company usually gives away thousands of reusable cups. Hundreds of workers also went on strike in June 2023 to protest after the union said Starbucks banned Pride displays at some stores.
The union and the company struck a different tone early this year, when they returned to the bargaining table and pledged to reach an agreement. Starbucks said it has held nine bargaining sessions with the union since April, and has reached more than 30 agreements with the union.
But the two sides now appear to be at an impasse.