Workers at some unionized Georgia Starbucks cafes could strike next week

Unionized Starbucks workers in Georgia plan to strike next week on a busy day for the Seattle coffee giant.

Starbucks Workers United, the union representing thousands of baristas nationwide, on Wednesday voted to authorize a strike if a contract agreement is not reached by Nov. 13. That’s “Red Cup Day,” Starbucks’ popular holiday promotion, when customers get a free, reusable, red cup.

About 550 of the 10,000 company-operated U.S. stores are unionized, according to The Associated Press.

The threat of strike comes as contract negotiations have stalled. Union delegates in April declined Starbucks’ contract offer. A strike could hit stores in at least 25 cities, and baristas are prepared to escalate their efforts if progress is not made, the union said.

“Workers really just want to get back to negotiations and to finish this contract up,” said Amanda Rivera, field organizer for Workers United in Georgia.

Eleven Starbucks locations are unionized in the state, including nine in metro Atlanta, according to Rivera. In total, there are about 180 union workers in Georgia, she said.

Rivera declined to say which Starbucks locations in the state could go on strike. “We want the element of surprise,” she said.

Starbucks says only about 4% of its coffeehouse workforce is unionized, and in the event of a strike, the majority of its locations would remain open, according to a Nov. 5 blog post from Sara Kelly, the company’s chief partner officer. Starbucks did not return requests for comment from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In 2022, a Starbucks in Augusta was the first in Georgia to unionize, followed by metro Atlanta’s first that same year. As part of a broader restructuring plan, Starbucks closed some unionized locations, including one at Atlanta’s Ansley Mall this summer.

Among their demands, the union is asking for better staffing and higher pay.

“We just want to have enough people to be able to do our jobs effectively and efficiently,” said Rivera, who was a barista for years before leaving Starbucks to work full time for the union. “We are also asking for raises that take into account cost of living.”

In the blog post, the coffee giant said it was at the bargaining table for months, “working in good faith” with the union, and reached more than 30 tentative agreements.

“Our commitment to bargaining hasn’t changed,” Kelly wrote. “Workers United walked away from the table, but if they are ready to come back, we’re ready to talk. We believe we can move quickly to a reasonable deal.”

Starbucks called out some of the union’s terms, such as what it said are proposed pay increases of 65% immediately and 77% over three years, along with the ability to shut down channels such as mobile ordering if a store has more than five orders in the queue.

“These aren’t serious, evidence-based proposals,” Kelly wrote. She also defended the company’s wage and benefits package.

The union said Starbucks is unfairly combining elements of different economic proposals to come up with those pay raise figures, according to The Associated Press.

The union, in a media release, said it rejected Starbucks’ contract offer in April because it failed “to improve wages or benefits in the first year of the contract and didn’t put forth proposals to address chronic understaffing.”