Thousands of Starbucks Workers Prepare for Strike Vote: Here's What You Need to Know

Background of the Starbucks Labor Movement

Thousands of Starbucks workers are gearing up to vote on whether to go on strike next week. The strike authorization vote is set to begin Friday and will remain open for several days. Starbucks Workers United is expected to share results after voting ends. Employees represented by the union have staged two national strikes over the last year, most recently in May to protest Starbucks' new dress code.

Recent Developments in Union Activities

Thousands of workers also walked off the job in December 2024. As the voting gets underway, the union plans a series of rallies and pickets over the weekend outside Starbucks stores in dozens of U.S. cities. Starbucks Workers United originated in Buffalo, New York, in 2021 and now represents approximately 9,500 workers in about 550 Starbucks cafes across the country.

Negotiation Stalemates and Impacts

A union spokesperson confirmed that contract negotiations between Starbucks and Workers United began in May 2024 but fell apart in December. Mediation efforts that started in February ended two months later with Workers United rejecting Starbucks' contract proposal. The union asserts it has secured 33 tentative agreements from Starbucks, yet the majority are non-economic proposals.

The union explained that Starbucks has refused to present a new proposal that meets workers' demands, leading to stalled negotiations. In its defense, Starbucks claims to have engaged in nearly 200 hours of negotiations but states that Workers United ultimately provided members with an incomplete outline of single-store contracts for voting.