Overview
- More than 1,000 unionized baristas walked off the job at roughly 65 company-owned stores across about 40–45 U.S. cities.
- Organizers timed the action to disrupt the high-traffic Red Cup Day promotion that offers customers free reusable cups.
- Workers are demanding higher take-home pay, more stable hours and staffing, and resolutions to hundreds of alleged unfair labor practices.
- Starbucks says the vast majority of locations remain open, argues the union represents about 4% of employees, and says it is ready to resume talks.
- The union calls the strike open-ended and says it could expand until a deal is reached, while union and company estimates differ on membership and store counts.