BURBANK (CNS) - Workers at a Starbucks in Burbank joined a five-day nationwide strike that began Friday, accusing the coffee giant of failing to honor earlier commitments to improve collective bargaining and resolve legal disputes.
The strike, led by Starbucks Workers United, began Friday morning in key markets, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle. Walkouts are expected to expand daily and impact hundreds of stores nationwide by Christmas Eve, the union said.
The walkout closed the Burbank location at Alameda Avenue and Shelton Street.
"Nobody wants to strike. It's a last resort, but Starbucks has broken its promise to thousands of baristas and left us with no choice," Fatemeh Alhadjaboodi, a bargaining delegate, said in a statement. "In a year when Starbucks invested so many millions in top executive talent, it has failed to present the baristas who make its company run with a viable economic proposal."
The union said Starbucks proposed an economic package with no new wage increases for union baristas and a guarantee of only 1.5% in future years.
Starbucks maintains it is committed to reaching an agreement and is willing to return to the bargaining table, claiming the union was the one to cut off negotiations.
"It is disappointing they didn't return to the table given the progress we've made to date. Since April we've held more than nine bargaining sessions over 20 days," according to a statement from the company. "We've reached over thirty (30) meaningful agreements on hundreds of topics Workers United delegates told us were important to them, including many economic issues."
The company said it offers an average wage of over $18 an hour and provides what it calls best-in-class benefits, including health care, free college tuition, paid family leave and stock grants.
Starbucks Workers United secured its first union victory in Buffalo in December 2021 and has since expanded organizing efforts across the company's network. But unionized stores remain a small portion of Starbucks' 11,200 U.S. company-operated locations, which employ about 201,000 workers as of September.
"We were ready to bring the foundational framework home this year, but Starbucks wasn't," said Lynne Fox, President of Workers United. "After all Starbucks has said about how they value partners throughout the system, we refuse to accept zero immediate investment in baristas' wages and no resolution of the hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practices."