Here's what's different about this year's Starbucks strikes, as union drive nears 4-year anniversary

By Bill Peters and Tomi Kilgore

'The big difference with this one is that they're striking indefinitely,' labor expert says, with walkouts planned at dozens of stores and cities on 'Red Cup Day'

A labor strike by more than 1,000 Starbucks baristas in 42 cities has been timed alongside the coffee chain's annual "Red Cup Day" giveaway.

The federal government may have just resumed operations, but many Americans could be facing another shutdown on Thursday - at their local Starbucks.

Timed to coincide with the coffee chain's (SBUX) annual "Red Cup Day," on which customers can receive a free reusable holiday-themed cup, the Starbucks Workers United union said more than 1,000 baristas have launched an "open-ended" labor strike to demand better pay and improved staffing.

The union said the strike would begin with 65 stores across more than 42 cities. The work action, it added, could expand to the more than 550 stores in which baristas are represented if a labor deal isn't reached.

More than 12,000 Starbucks workers have unionized since late 2021, when baristas first voted to organize at a store in Buffalo, N.Y. But since then, negotiations over a contract have stumbled, and the union has accused the company of scores of labor-law violations, bad-faith bargaining and of trying to suppress organization.

"Starbucks's refusal to settle a fair union contract and end union busting is forcing us to take drastic action," Dachi Spoltore, a barista in Pittsburgh, said in a statement Thursday.

After the union voted last week to authorize the strike, Starbucks's chief partner officer, Sara Kelly, said unionized employees represented less than 4% of its coffee-shop workers, and that more than 10,000 stores and nearly 7,000 licensed locations would remain open. Starbucks also questioned the number of workers the union said is participating in the strike and the number of cities affected.

Jaci Anderson, director of global communications at Starbucks, said in a statement that the company was "disappointed" that Workers United called for a strike instead of coming back to the bargaining table.

"Less than 1% of our coffeehouses are experiencing any level of disruption and the vast majority of our 240,000 partners came to work ready to serve customers and celebrate Reuseable Red Cup Day," she said.

Johnnie Kallas, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois's School of Labor and Employment Relations, noted in an interview that Starbucks workers have demonstrated numerous times in previous years, including on Red Cup Day in the past. But this occasion, he said, was different.

"The big difference with this one is that they're striking indefinitely," Kallas said. "This is a big difference from what we've seen in the past, because they're basically saying, at least at the moment, that they're going to stay out until having their demands met."

Kallas said that he's been involved in studies showing that over half of all initial labor contracts take well over a year to negotiate. Four years, he said, is "an extremely long time to go from winning at least the first union election to being able to negotiate a contract."

Starbucks shares finished down 0.9% Thursday, after closing the previous session at a 10-week high. The stock has lost 5.3% so far this year, while the S&P 500 index SPX has gained 14.6%.

The strike comes amid Starbucks's efforts to revive sales growth, as it deals with stiffer competition from smaller coffee chains and consumers struggling with higher costs of living. Some customers have complained that Starbucks stores lack the warmer atmospheres of years past and have been too focused on driving traffic and churning out orders.

Under Chief Executive Brian Niccol, who took the job last year, Starbucks has embarked on a plan to make store atmospheres more welcoming with things like condiment bars, comfier seats and ceramic mugs, as well as messages from baristas written with Sharpie markers on coffee cups. The chain has also said it has taken steps intended to untangle the ordering process, boost staff hours and make service feel more personal.

The union has claimed that the plan isn't working, saying customers and baristas aren't happy. Still, in Starbucks's latest quarterly report, the company reported year-over-year growth in comparable-store sales for the first time in seven quarters.

Management credited extra staffing, improved service and things like new protein drinks for those results. But it held off on providing a more detailed outlook on its business until next year. The company has reported contractions in consolidated operating margin - a measure of how profitable sales are - for seven straight quarters, due to higher coffee costs and tariffs, but also because of higher labor costs.

Starbucks and the union committed to negotiating a contract framework last year. Talks followed, and both sides reached an array of tentative agreements on how to improve the workplace. But talks later stalled, and the union this April rejected a proposal from Starbucks that it said "failed to improve wages or benefits in the first year of the contract" and didn't address understaffing.

After the union voted to authorize a strike last week, Starbucks said it offered "the best job in retail." The company said it was investing $500 million to boost staffing, and rolling out technology to make working easier.

Kelly, in that announcement, said: "Our commitment to bargaining hasn't changed." She added: "We believe we can move quickly to a reasonable deal."

Still, the unionization drive, and Starbucks's efforts to stop it over the past few years, have challenged the company's image as a progressive-minded employer. The union, in materials sent out in conjunction with the strikes, said that the average barista receives less than 20 hours a week, below the cutoff for benefits, and said that understaffing was "rampant, leading to longer wait times as customer orders stream in."

Michelle Eisen, a spokesperson for Starbucks Workers United, who left her job as a barista in May after working for 15 years as one, said the recent changes to stores, such as the Sharpie messages, can add to service times and lead to other hiccups in routine service.

"It's the morning, middle of peak, 9 a.m., you have 40 drinks lined up. You've got to make all of those drinks," she said. "And in between each drink, you have to somehow write a sincere, genuine, personal message to someone you don't know in most cases."

"You're seeing a sticker with somebody's name on it," she added. "You have no idea if this is the 'Joe' that you see every day, or if this is a 'Joe' who's moving through town and happens to be stopping at your store this particular day."

Labor laws can make it easy for employers to drag out the negotiation process with unionized employees or otherwise stamp out unionization efforts. Kate Bronfenbrenner, a lecturer at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said in a statement Wednesday that corporations were likely emboldened by a "dysfunctional" National Labor Relations Board and an "antiunion [presidential] administration."

Kallas said that U.S. labor law lacks a solid arbitration process to settle contract disputes, noting that Starbucks wasn't mandated to come to a contract agreement. "Good faith" negotiations are open to interpretation, he added, while there aren't many punitive measures - such as fines or stiffer rules - against companies that run afoul of labor laws.

"Unfortunately, federal labor law does not have good answers for when employers drag their feet or bargain in bad faith," said Matthew Bodie, a professor at the University of Minnesota focused on labor and legal issues. He said that unions were left largely with strikes as a way to exert pressure.

Eisen said that the union had a strike and defense fund to help striking workers, though it wouldn't fully make up for lost wages and benefits.

"Workers are fighting just as hard to improve the business as a whole," she said. "Yes, their working conditions are a big factor, but everything that we have worked toward will inevitably improve the customer experience as well."

-Bill Peters -Tomi Kilgore

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11-13-25 1737ET