Overview
- Roughly 1,000 workers at about 65 unionized stores walked off the job on Red Cup Day in an open-ended unfair‑labor‑practice strike, according to Starbucks Workers United.
- New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Seattle mayor-elect Katie Wilson publicly called for a boycott, invoking the slogan “No contract, no coffee.”
- Major labor and activist groups, including the AFL-CIO, SEIU, and the No Kings Alliance, pledged support and urged supporters not to buy Starbucks during the strike.
- Starbucks said it remains ready to negotiate, emphasized that fewer than 4% of its U.S. partners work in unionized stores, and noted locations remain open to customers.
- Hundreds of unresolved NLRB unfair labor practice charges form the legal backdrop, and the union says the strike has no set end date and could expand to more stores.