A Starbucks employee boards a Starbucks union bus after Starbucks employees stand on a picket line with striking SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America members in a show of solidarity outside Netflix Studios in Los Angeles on July 28, 2023.
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Starbucks The union said on Tuesday that 98% of unionized baristas voted to authorize a strike to seek a contract with the coffee giant.
Negotiators will return to talks with Starbucks on Tuesday at the last scheduled meeting of the year, aiming to agree on a “basic framework.” Starbucks and the union have spent hundreds of hours at the bargaining table this year, with the two sides proposing dozens of tentative agreements, the company said in a news release.
However, hundreds of unfair labor practice cases remain unresolved, and the union says Starbucks has yet to come up with a comprehensive plan to address barista pay and other benefits.
In a statement to CNBC, Starbucks disputed the union’s characterization and said the company remained committed to a final framework agreement.
“It is disappointing that the union is considering a strike rather than focusing on extremely productive negotiations. Since April, we have scheduled and participated in more than eight multi-day bargaining sessions in which we have Thirty meaningful agreements were reached on ten topics that workers’ union representatives told us are important to them, including many economic issues,” the company said in a statement.
The strike authorization indicates that relations between the two countries may be cooling again after the two sides said in late February that they had found a “constructive path forward” through mediation. Starbucks has been battling union fervor sweeping its stores for more than two years. The company’s attempts to curb the union movement sparked a backlash from some consumers and lawmakers, culminating in former CEO Howard Schultz’s testimony on Capitol Hill.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company in September, pledged to negotiate in good faith in a letter to the union in his first weeks on the job.
Nicholas announced on monday Starting in March, the company will double paid parental leave. However, the barista will reportedly received Next year’s annual raise will be smaller than in previous years due to falling sales at U.S. stores.
Since Buffalo held its first election three years ago, more than 500 company-owned Starbucks coffeehouses have voted to unionize workers.
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