Starbucks workers in 100 stores begin three-day strike in campaign to unite

Starbucks workers are on strike again.

Starbucks Workers United, the group organizing labor union efforts at the coffee chain, said Friday that more than 1,000 baristas at store locations across the country are taking part in a three-day strike, calling the strike “the longest class action of our campaign to date.”

The group posted an interactive Google map showing more than 100 retail locations where workers are taking part in the strike. The strike is a “doubling” after an earlier action on November 17, when workers at 110 Starbucks stores staged a one-day strike. That strike coincided with the company’s annual Red Cup Day, a holiday during which the store gives customers reusable red cups with the purchase of certain drinks.

Ticker Safety Last Change Change %
SBUX STARBUCKS CORP. 99.99 -2.20 -2.15%

The strike also comes after Starbucks closed its Broadway East and Denny Way location in Seattle, the city’s first store to join a union. The company said the store was closed due to “safety and security incidents”.

STARBUCKS CLOSING FIRST STORE IN SEATTLE FOR ASSOCIATION, SUBJECT TO ‘SAFETY AND SECURITY INCIDENTS’

Images of picketing baristas were posted on social media.

The Seattle store closed on Dec. 9, the first birthday of Starbucks employees in Buffalo, New York. make history by uniting.

Ticker Safety Last Change Change %
SBUX STARBUCKS CORP. 99.99 -2.20 -2.15%

Furious union organizers claimed that Starbucks “decided to escalate their anti-union campaign by closing the Broadway & Denny location, the first store to organize in Seattle, on the one-year anniversary of Starbucks’ first union election victory.”

“Starbucks redoubled their union kill, so workers are going to redouble their fight for a contract,” the union said in a press release Friday.

TRANSPORT SECRETARY BUTTIGIEG MADE ‘PERSONAL JOURNEY’ TO EUROPE DURING INTENSE RAIL STRIKE NEGOTIATIONS

Starbucks employee Kyle Trainer uses a megaphone outside a Starbucks coffee shop in San Francisco during a nationwide strike on Nov. 17, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/Getty Images)

Starbucks workers strike in California

Workers carry strike signs outside a unionized Starbucks Coffee in Anaheim, California on Nov. 17, 2022. (Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images/Getty Images)

SCROOGED: BRITISH ASSOCIATIONS HOLD SUNAK CHRISTMAS HOSTAGE HEAVY ACTION AGAINST ‘UNREASONABLE’ LEADERS

“Starbucks sent a clear message when they closed the Broadway and Denny store,” shelp Michelle Eisen, a barista from Buffalo who leads the union organization. “They’re doubling down on their union breakdown, so we’re doubling down too. We demand fair staffing, an end to store closures, and that Starbucks negotiate with us in good faith.”

The union notes that the National Labor Relations Board has filed more than 45 official complaints against Starbucks alleging more than 900 alleged violations of federal labor law, and Starbucks is “one of the worst violators of federal labor law in the world.” modern American history”.

The company told FOX Business, “It is unfortunate that Workers United continues to spread misleading claims while interfering with the Starbucks experience that our partners and customers have come to love and expect.”

“Despite these delaying tactics, we remain focused on collaboration and meaningful and direct dialogue with the union to make Starbucks a company that works for all, and we urge Workers United to deliver on their promises to partners by moving the negotiation process forward to help,” said a Starbucks spokesperson.

CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE THE FOX BUSINESS APP

The striking workers have claimed that Starbucks employees are “underpaid, forced to run perpetually understaffed stores, and lack consistent schedules they can rely on.”

They have demanded “the right to organize a union free from intimidation and fear” and accused the company of union-destroying tactics.

Starbucks said the vast majority of stores where protests have taken place have remained open and it respects workers’ right to protest. The company added that less than 3% of its 9,000 US-owned stores have attempted to join a union.

Jon Brown of FOX Business contributed to this report.