Starbucks strike shuts down hundreds of locations amid holiday shopping
A walkout by baristas at Starbucks expanded on Tuesday, as more workers joined at five-day labor action against the coffee giant in a protest that comes to a close later in the day.
The Seattle-based company and Starbucks Workers United, the union representing workers at 525 stores across the country, offered conflicting tallies of the number of locations impacted.
Starbucks Workers United said more than 5,000 baristas walked off the job on Tuesday, shutting down more than 300 stores across 43 states.
Starbucks, however, said about 170 Starbucks locations did not open as planned on Tuesday, Christmas Eve. With over 10,000 company-operated stores, 98% of Starbucks stores remained open, staffed by nearly 200,000 workers who are “continuing to serve customers during the holidays,” Starbucks said Tuesday in an emailed statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
“Half the baristas in my store drive 30 minutes one way because they can’t afford to live closer to work,” said Lauren Hollingsworth, a barista from Ashland, Oregon, in a union release.”These strikes are an initial show of strength,” she added.
Workers walked off the job at all three Starbucks locations in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and the flagship roasteries in New York City and Seattle, including a 24-hour picket line at the Seattle Roastery, the union said.
The walkouts started on Friday, coinciding with the holiday shopping season, and broadened to include more stores in additional cities during the weekend, with workers protesting a lack of progress in contract talks with the company. Workers at 60-plus stores walked off their jobs in 12 major cities on Monday, with the Christmas Eve expansion the biggest yet, according to the union.
According to the labor group, baristas went on strike Tuesday in 43 states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Where the Starbucks strikes are taking place
Baristas have walked picket lines and shut down Starbucks locations across 13 metro areas in recent days, according to the union. That includes locations in:
- Boston
- Chicago
- Columbus, Ohio
- Denver
- Los Angeles
- New York City
- Philadelphia
- Pittsburgh
- Portland, Oregon
- Seattle
- St. Louis
- Tucson
Active picket lines planned for Tuesday include the following 10 locations, the union said:
- Atlanta 10830 Haynes Bridge Road, Alpharetta, GA 12 p.m. ET
- Buffalo, N.Y. 933 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo, NY 12 p.m. EST
- Chicago 5964 N Ridge Ave, Chicago, IL 12 p.m. CST
- Columbus, Ohio 88 East Broad St, Columbus OH 43215 12 p.m. EST
- Dallas 2300 S Loop 288 Denton,TX 12 p.m. CST
- Los Angeles 3241 N Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 10 a.m. PST
- NYC: Manhattan 444 Broadway, New York, NY 12 p.m. EST
- Philadelphia 1528 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 9 a.m. EST
- Portland 720 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 12 p.m. PST
- Seattle Pike Street Roastery, 1124 Pike St, Seattle, WA 1 p.m. PST
According to the union, the company has failed to honor a commitment made in February to reach a labor agreement this year.
Starbucks proposed an economic package with no new wage increases for unionized baristas now and a 1.5% increase in future years, the union said Friday.
Starbucks said Workers United prematurely ended discussions this week. Its pay and benefits are already worth $30 an hour for those working at least 20 hours a week, the coffee chain said.
“We are ready to continue negotiations when the union comes back to the bargaining table,”Sara Kelly, Starbucks’ executive vice president and chief partner office, said in a statement posted by the company on Monday.
The union also wants Starbucks to resolve outstanding legal issues, including hundreds of unfair labor practice charges that workers have filed with the National Labor Relations Board. The agency also has opened or settled hundreds of charges against Amazon. On Thursday, a day before the Starbucks walkouts, the Teamsters union announced strikes at seven Amazon delivery hubs.
