1,000 Starbucks Workers Strike as Monopoly Faces Declining Profitability

Read our editorial on the significance of strikes here, and our past coverage of the 2024 Starbucks strike here and here.

Over 1,000 Starbucks workers at 65 stores across the country hit picket lines last Thursday, effectively shutting down operations at multiple locations on “Red Cup Day,” the company’s most profitable day of the year.

Starbucks Workers United, the union representing the striking workers, stated that the strike will go on indefinitely—a first of its kind for the union, as previous strikes have been time-bound—and will expand to more stores for as long as the company continues to stall on proposing a contract that incorporates workers’ demands.

Since national bargaining between the company and the union began in April 2024, Starbucks has refused to address workers’ demands for higher wages, adequate staffing, and the resolution of Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges.

While Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson touts that workers are paid “more than $30 an hour on average in pay and benefits,” the starting hourly pay for Starbucks baristas averages just over $15 an hour according to Forbes. Workers also told monopoly media that many do not receive benefits as they are not allocated the 20 hours they need to work per week to be eligible.

Bloomberg reported that workers’ wages stagnated with a paltry 2-3% increase last year, even less than the 3-5% yearly increases from previous years. Last April, Starbucks offered a humiliating 2% raise over the year—an “increase” that amounts to a real wage decrease when considering soaring inflation and cost of living, which the Consumer Price Index says increased by 3% since last year.

The monopoly has continuously neglected adequate staffing in its contract proposals and instead conjured up a “Back to Starbucks” scheme, a new staffing model based on streamlining and reallocation.

Surveys conducted by the union show that, following the rollout of “Back to Starbucks,” 88% of workers continue to report unsustainable and dangerous working conditions caused by understaffing. According to workers on social media, the scheme in fact exacerbated the issue of understaffing and overworking at many stores: staffing levels remained the same while new tasks were pushed onto workers, such as handwriting customers’ names on cups and getting orders to customers in less than four minutes. Meanwhile, company executives were awarded $6 million in stock grants if sufficient cost-cutting resulted from the plan.

Striking workers are also demanding the resolution of ULP charges, as workers have filed over 700 ULP charges against the company that remain unresolved, including hundreds involving retaliatory firings for unionizing.

Starbucks continues to face declining profitability, with a 36% drop in operating income in its 3^rd Quarter compared to the previous year. As part of its “Back to Starbucks” plan, the company closed down 520 stores across the country this year, 59 of which had voted to unionize. The company scrambles to recover from the economic crisis by offloading it onto workers and squeezing out profits by suppressing wages, increasing work tempos, and targeting unionization efforts.

Photo: Retrieved from Starbucks Workers United.

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