Thousands of baristas, who’ve spent years trying to unionize Starbucks, are done waiting.
It’s Red Cup Day — when Starbucks, which is in the middle of a massive turnaround campaign, usually gives away reusable cups and rakes in record sales — but instead, thousands of baristas are walking off the job, in hopes that the coffee giant sits down to finalize their first contract.
Baristas at more than 65 stores across 40 US cities launched their strike on Thursday, disrupting the historically major sales promotion. In 2024, Red Cup Day at Starbucks drove a 42.4% spike in daily visits relative to an average Thursday, according to foot traffic data from Placer.ai.
Workers at more than 550 union stores are prepared to join the strike if negotiations don’t resume, according to a statement from the union. The work stoppage marks the fourth strike the union has organized since 2023, and the third work stoppage since CEO Brian Niccol took the helm of the company in September 2024.
A Starbucks spokesperson told Business Insider in October that the union’s previous “attempts at disruption” affected less than 1% of the company’s store locations. The company has 16,864 stores across the US, according to its most recent financial report.
Starbucks did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside normal working hours.
The workers have been trying to ratify their collective bargaining agreement since the first store unionized in December 2021. After some progress and a commitment by the company to reach a labor agreement by the end of 2024, contract talks collapsed last December.
Starbucks corporate and the unionized workers have each blamed the other for the breakdown.
“Workers United chose to walk away from the negotiations, not Starbucks,” a Starbucks spokesperson told Business Insider in October, when the union first voted to authorize the latest strike. “If they’re ready to come back, we’re ready to talk.”
The union insists it’s ready to bargain and is waiting on Starbucks to return to the table with new economic proposals and solutions to more than 700 unresolved unfair labor practice charges related to allegations of retaliation and union busting, according to a statement from Starbucks Workers United.
Baristas prepare for a bitter, public battle
The latest strike comes a little more than a month after the company initiated a $1 billion restructuring as part of its “Back to Starbucks” revitalization effort. The September restructuring involved the closure of more than 600 stores, resulting in the layoff of thousands of baristas and the elimination of over 900 non-retail jobs.
The union reported an increased interest in stores joining its ranks since the restructuring. However, since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s term in January, the National Labor Relations Board, which certifies union elections, has not been fully staffed with the minimum number of members needed to officially issue decisions or take formal actions.
As a result, any new votes to unionize additional stores have remained in limbo, and their baristas have been without the full protection of the National Labor Relations Act, a federal law that dictates the rights of unionized workers.
That means Starbucks baristas who were not recognized as part of the union prior to January cannot join in on the strike, even if they have since voted to be officially recognized, Cathy Creighton, a former field attorney for the National Labor Relations Board, told Business Insider.
With a low density of unionized stores compared to Starbucks’ massive footprint, and without the ability to recruit new members while the NLRB remains insufficiently staffed, the public fight is likely to become even more contentious as baristas try to ramp up the pressure on corporate, Creighton, who is now director of Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations Buffalo Co-Lab, said.
“Starbucks workers are much more resilient than I ever would have thought — they’re much more resilient than most workers have been in the past, continuing to fight all these years,” Creighton said. “And they have to do something, or they’ll lose the momentum and the membership that they have gained. This is also a signal to other workers: ‘hey, we’re we’re out here fighting, come join us.'”
Dachi Spoltore, a barista of 5 years from the Amos Hall location in Pittsburgh, who walked out on strike, said in a statement that the union is “turning the Red Cup Season into the Red Cup Rebellion.”
“Starbucks’ refusal to settle a fair union contract and end union busting is forcing us to take drastic action,” Spoltore said. “For every one barista on strike, dozens more allies and customers have pledged to honor the picket line and not buy Starbucks while we’re on strike.”
Pressure from shareholders — and lawmakers
Business Insider previously reported that some shareholders have grown increasingly concerned over the mounting labor tensions as the company navigates its turnaround campaign. Lawmakers have also recently joined in to express their support for the in-store staff.
On November 10, over 100 US senators and representatives, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders and the House Labor Caucus, sent pointed letters to Niccol, which cited his nearly $100 million pay package, and “extravagant spending on executives and shareholders” as evidence that “Starbucks has the money to reach a fair agreement with its workers.”
“Starbucks must reverse course from its current posture, resolve its existing labor disputes, and bargain a fair contract in good faith with these employees,” the lawmakers wrote.
A group of shareholders also published an open letter to the company’s board in October, urging Starbucks to resume contract talks before the contentious labor relations affect its share price.
Starbucks’ stock has declined by more than 5% this year. The company’s most recent fiscal report, released in late October, showed that its Q4 comparable sales rose 1% globally, driven by new protein-focused drinks. It was the first time in seven quarters that Starbucks had reported a comparable sales increase.
The shareholder letter cited concern for the company’s reputation and potential subsequent impact on investors, and is signed by Trillium Asset Management, Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE), Pensions Investment Research Consultants (PIRC) on behalf of investor clients, and New York City Comptroller Brad Lander.
“Starbucks’ failure to reach a contract agreement with the union illustrates mounting operational disruptions and risk exposure for the company and its shareholders,” Juana Lee, the associate director of corporate engagement at SHARE, told Business Insider on the eve of the strike. “Now is the time for Starbucks to engage in collective bargaining that leads to a fair agreement in a timely manner.”
