Starbucks baristas in San Antonio join nationwide strike

SAN ANTONIO – A multi-day strike by Starbucks employees has closed dozens of stores nationwide and reached San Antonio.

Baristas at the downtown San Antonio location went on strike Tuesday morning and closed the store. There are signs on the doors that read “No contract, no coffee” and “Here’s to happiness and a living wage.”

The strike, which began Friday in Los Angeles, Chicago and Starbucks’ hometown of Seattle, spread to stores in Boston, Dallas and Portland, Oregon, on Monday. Workers in New York, Denver, Pittsburgh and other cities also joined the strike over the weekend.

Workers are protesting against a lack of progress in contract negotiations with the company. Starbucks Workers United, which began the unionization effort in 2021, said Starbucks failed to live up to a commitment it made in February to reach a collective bargaining agreement this year.

The union also wants the company to resolve outstanding legal issues, including hundreds of unfair labor practice charges that workers have filed with the National Labor Relations Board. As of 2021, baristas at 535 company-owned Starbucks stores in the United States have voted to join the union.

According to the website, five stores in San Antonio and one store in New Braunfels are part of the union

BACKGROUND

The strike comes at one of Starbucks’ busiest times of the year. But the company said Monday it had had “no material impact” on its store operations. Starbucks has around 10,000 branches in the USA

“We respect our partners’ right to engage in lawful strike activities, and we appreciate the thousands of partners across the country who continue to support each other and deliver the Starbucks experience to our customers,” the company said in a statement Monday.

The two sides have been negotiating since the spring but appear to have reached an impasse on economic issues. Starbucks said it has committed to an annual wage increase of 1.5% or more for unionized workers. If the company gave non-union workers a smaller raise in a given year, it would still give union workers a 1.5% raise.

Starbucks says its baristas in the U.S. earn an average of $18 an hour. With benefits — including health care, free college tuition and paid family leave — Starbucks’ pay package is worth an average of $30 an hour for baristas who work at least 20 hours per week, the company said.

Workers say they deserve more, pointing out that Brian Niccol, Starbucks’ new chairman and CEO who started in September, could make more than $100 million in his first year on the job.