Pa. union organizer deems strike timing ideal for unionized Starbucks baristas

Starbucks Workers United is launching a strike authorization vote Friday amid stalled talks for a first contract between union baristas and the coffeehouse chain.

Baristas are also planning 70 “practice pickets” in 60 cities as the vote unfolds to draw attention to their demands for better staffing, pay and working conditions, the union announced Thursday.

Starbucks, for its part, said in a statement it already offers the “best job in retail.”

The nationwide rallies and strike threats come as the company faces sagging sales and rising pressure from shareholders to mend fences with its workforce. Southwestern Pennsylvania-based Workers United organizer Cas Borowitz believes this is the ideal time to strike.

“I’ve been on this campaign from the beginning,” said Borowitz, who worked as a Starbucks barista until quitting a few weeks ago. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much internal and external pressure on the company, especially when it comes to their bottom line.”

She expects the vote to reflect majority support for a strike from the union’s 12,000-plus members across more than 550 stores.

Authorization wouldn’t force a strike, but it would allow union officials to call one.

A strike would not widely impact the business, a Starbucks spokesperson said, since Workers United represents only 4% or so of its roughly 18,000 locations.

Southwestern Pennsylvania, one of the union’s major strongholds, will be home to two of the practice pickets, where workers will rally but permit customers and their colleagues to enter the store.

Workers staged similar events in September after the company closed about 200 of its locations, including three in Pittsburgh.

Baristas will gather Sunday outside the Starbucks store where Forbes Avenue and Atwood Street meet in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood.

On Nov. 1, workers will stage another rally near the cafe at Penn Center East shopping center in Wilkins.

This store carries symbolic weight for Workers United.

Workers there were the first to try and dissolve their union. The 2023 decertification petition was thrown out by a judge because it was influenced by “egregious union busting,” according to Borowitz.

Two of the store’s employees were also fired in 2022 after supporting organizing efforts. The National Labor Relations Board reinstated the workers in 2023 and said the company was engaging in “serious and widespread” unfair labor practices, including threatening to terminate pro-union workers.

Relations have hardly improved since. Contract talks collapsed in December, with each side blaming the other for walking away.

The union has often said meeting its demands — among them a $20-per-hour starting wage, 5% annual raises and an end to understaffing — would cost Starbucks less than one day’s worth of sales. A Starbucks spokesperson declined to comment on this claim.

The spokesperson did, however, say the company pays more than $30 an hour on average when factoring in benefits and is investing upwards of $500 million to better staff stores during peak times.

Earlier this month, a group of investors along with New York City Comptroller Brad Lander sent a letter to the Starbucks board expressing concern over the contract impasse and urging the company to restart talks.