More than 1,000 unionized Starbucks workers on Thursday went on strike at 65 U.S. stores, including in Evanston and Geneva, to protest a lack of progress in labor negotiations with the company.
The strike was intended to disrupt Starbucks’ Red Cup Day, which is typically one of the company’s busiest days of the year. Since 2018, Starbucks has given out free, reusable cups on that day to customers who buy a holiday drink.
Starbucks Workers United, the union organizing baristas, said stores in 45 cities would be affected, including near Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, San Diego, St. Louis, Dallas, Columbus, Ohio, and Starbucks’ home city of Seattle. There is no date set for the strike to end, and more stores are prepared to join if Starbucks doesn’t reach a contract agreement with the union, organizers said.
The union said Thursday morning that the strike had already closed some stores and was expected to force more to close later in the day.
The Evanston store at 1901 Dempster St. was closed, according to Starbucks’ website, while the Geneva location at 229 W. State St. was marked open.
When baristas go on strike, the majority of their stores close due to staffing shortages, Michelle Eisen, Starbucks Workers United spokesperson said during a call with media on Thursday. “We anticipate dozens will shut down,” said Eisen, who is a 15-year veteran barista.
Starbucks emphasized that the vast majority of its U.S. stores would be open and operating as usual Thursday. The coffee giant has 10,000 company-owned stores in the U.S., as well as 7,000 licensed locations in places like grocery stores and airports.
In September, Starbucks announced plans to close hundreds of U.S. and Canadian stores — including in Chicago — and lay off 900 nonretail employees as part of a turnaround.
The Seattle coffee giant closed 15 stores in the Chicago area over one weekend in September.
Around 550 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores are currently unionized. More have voted to unionize, but Starbucks closed 59 unionized stores in September as part of the larger reorganization campaign.
In the lead-up to Christmas last year, baristas at some Chicago area stores joined a five-day strike in several cities. They included stores in Edgewater at 5964 N. Ridge Ave. and Evanston on Main Street, which Starbucks shuttered in September, as well as in Bucktown at Armitage and Hoyne. Workers rallied outside the Bucktown store last month.
Starbucks employee Diego Franco is joining Thursday’s picket line in Evanston “so we can fix what’s broken at our stores,” he said. Franco works at a Starbucks in Des Plaines and has been a barista, trainer and manager in his six years with the company.
His store has gone from approximately six managers to about three now, and understaffing is a chronic problem, he said. “We’re told to smile more, to run faster, to write messages on cups and somehow to keep up with the constant changing of policies and constantly being understaffed.”
Franco makes $17 an hour and “lives paycheck to paycheck. I can’t sustain myself on that. I can’t sustain my mom’s medical bills,” he said.
Instead of adding staff to reduce customers’ wait times, Starbucks is “spending more time and money trying to retaliate, intimidate and … bust our union,” Franco said. “We’re not going anywhere until Starbucks signs a fair contract and resolves the hundreds of unfair labor practice charges.”
A stalled contract agreement
Striking workers say they’re protesting because Starbucks has yet to reach a contract agreement with the union. Starbucks workers first voted to unionize at a store in Buffalo in 2021. In December 2023, Starbucks vowed to finalize an agreement by the end of 2024.
But in August 2024, the company ousted Laxman Narasimhan, the CEO who made that promise. The union said progress has stalled under current chairman and CEO Brian Niccol.
Workers say they’re seeking better hours and improved staffing in stores, where they say long customer wait times are routine. They also want higher pay, pointing out that executives like Niccol are making millions and the company spent $81 million in June on a conference in Las Vegas for 14,000 store managers and regional leaders.
The union also wants the company to resolve hundreds of unfair labor practice charges filed by workers, who say the company has fired baristas in retaliation for unionizing and has failed to bargain over changes in policy that workers must enforce, like its decision earlier this year to limit restroom use to paying customers.
Starbucks says it offers the best wage and benefit package in retail, worth an average of $30 per hour. Among the company’s benefits are up to 18 weeks of paid family leave and 100% tuition coverage for a four-year college degree. In a letter to employees last week, Starbucks’ Chief Partner Officer Sara Kelly said the union walked away from the bargaining table in the spring.
Kelly said Starbucks remained ready to talk and “believes we can move quickly to a reasonable deal.” Kelly also said surveys showed that most employees like working for the company, and its barista turnover rates are half the industry average.
Limited locations with high visibility
The number of non-union Starbucks locations dwarfs the number of unionized ones. But Todd Vachon, a union expert at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, said any strike could be highly visible and educate the public on baristas’ concerns.
Unlike manufacturers, Vachon said, retail industries depend on the connection between their employees and their customers. That makes shaming a potentially powerful weapon in the union’s arsenal, he said.
Starbucks’ same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, rose 1% in the July-September period. It was the first time in nearly two years that the company had posted an increase.
In his first year at the company, Niccol set new hospitality standards, redesigned stores to be cozier and more welcoming, and adjusted staffing levels to better handle peak hours.
Starbucks also is trying to prioritize in-store orders over mobile ones. Last week, the company’s holiday drink rollout in the U.S. was so successful that it almost immediately sold out of its glass Bearista cup. Starbucks said demand for the cup exceeded its expectations, but it wouldn’t say if the Bearista will return before the holidays are over.