Starbucks baristas begin five-day strike in Seattle, LA, Chicago
Dec 20, 2024, 7:24 AM
In an aerial view, a US flag flies above the Starbucks headquarters at Starbucks Center on July 3, 2024 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo: David Ryder, Getty Images)
(Photo: David Ryder, Getty Images)
Starbucks baristas are going on strike Friday in Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago after contract negotiations broke down earlier this week.
The workers are planning for the strike to last five days, starting Dec. 20, but the strike could spread to hundreds of stores across the country by Christmas Eve. This decision from Starbucks Workers United comes after the company’s management allegedly prematurely ended a bargaining session earlier this week. The coffee retailer has denied this accusation.
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Starbucks Workers United represents more than 11,000 baristas across 500 stores in 45 states and the District of Columbia.
Michelle Eisen, a union delegate and barista, talked about the need for improved pay and working conditions, especially when comparing to the new CEO’s salary. When Brian Niccol took over Starbucks as its new chief, his annual salary is listed at $1.6 million, but he also received a signing bonus of $10 million and was given $75 million in stock options to compensate for his forfeiture of Chipotle equity.
“I have a hard time believing that the CEO of this company works 10,000 times harder than I do, or any one of these baristas does on this floor,” Eisen told Bloomberg News.
The coffee giant said it’s ready to continue negotiations, according to KIRO 7.
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“Workers United delegates prematurely ended our bargaining session this week. It is disappointing they didn’t return to the table given the progress we’ve made to date,” Starbucks wrote in a prepared statement obtained by KIRO 7. “Since April, we’ve held more than nine bargaining sessions over 20 days. We’ve reached over 30 meaningful agreements on hundreds of topics Workers United delegates told us were important to them, including many economic issues.”
Contributing: KIRO 7
Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.
