Starbucks Workers Union members across the country went on a five-day strike before Christmas last year, citing dissatisfaction with the company’s propositions during contract negotiations.
In April of last year, the union and Starbucks announced that negotiations on new contracts for the company’s employees began. Talk will now continue into 2025. The union said that stalled negotiations and a contract with no raises in its first year, prompted the strike.
Consisting of over 500 unionized stores and over 10,000 union workers the SWBU was founded in New York in late 2021, alleging that the Starbucks corporation is responsible for several unfair labor practice charges, such as unpredictable scheduling, unfair wages and unsafe working conditions.
Union officials say that 5,000 striking workers shut down a total of 300 stores across 43 states on Christmas Eve — the largest protest against the company so far.
The union is a division of Workers United, an international labor union that bargains for the wellbeing of over 80,000 workers across dozens of industries in the United States and Canada.
“We started to strike because of the unfair labor practices that were going on,” said Leeana Lee, shift supervisor at the Starbucks in Garden City. Lee has worked at Starbucks for over a year.
“Everybody is back at work, but I do want to put stress on the fact that it was only us testing out the waters. We need (Starbucks) to come back within the actual proposal that we can accept.”
“Starbucks’ biggest pitch was that you could work for them while being the best version of you,” she said.
“The reason why I started looking into unions was because that turned out to be not so true.”
While working at Starbucks, Lee claimed that her employer limited the number of piercings she could wear, and wasn’t paid a livable wage.
“I would love to sit down and make coffee for the rest of my life if I could make rent doing it,” she said. “I love my coworkers. I love that I can do something for the community by providing a safe space that’s comfortable. As long as Starbucks could agree to come back to the table and treat us fairly and give us a fair shot, I don’t see myself moving anywhere.”
Lee joined picket lines at locations throughout the strike, including on Christmas Eve. During the strike, she was delighted to see an outpouring of support from the local community.
“When we were on strike, we had food donated, we had people honking for us, we had people stop by and tell us that we’re doing a great job,” she said. “Anybody who’s also looking out to do a union, the community is the best place to start.”
The strikes, from Dec. 20 to Dec. 24, were meant to show the company that its workers were essential to its success — especially during the holiday season, Lee said.
When discussing insufficient wages, some workers cited the difference between the company’s hesitation to raise wages for workers while the company’s new CEO, Brian Niccol, received 10,000 times greater compensation, according to tech and finance site 24/7 Wall St.
Starbucks Executive Vice President and Chief Partner Officer Sara Kelley wrote a public letter to the union workers one day before the strike, on Dec. 19.
“Workers United proposals call for an immediate increase in the minimum wage of hourly partners by 64%, and by 77% over the life of a three-year year contract,” she said. “This is not sustainable.”
On Dec. 23, Kelley published a second piece detailing the company’s perspective of events. She wrote that 60 stores that day were temporarily closed “because of the actions called for by Workers United” out of 10,000 stores across the country, emphasizing most stores are open and ready to serve customers.
“Over the last three years alone, we have invested over $3 billion in the Partner Experience,” Kelley said. “Starbucks offers a competitive average pay of over $18 per hour, and best-in-class benefits. These benefits include health care, free college tuition, paid family leave, and company stock grants. No other retailer offers this kind of comprehensive pay and benefits package.”
“The union chose to walk away from bargaining last week,” she said. “We are ready to continue negotiations when the union comes back to the bargaining table.”