Starbucks workers around the U.S. are planning a three-day strike starting Friday as part of their effort to unionize the coffee chain’s stores.

More than 1,000 baristas at 100 stores are planning to walk out, according to Starbucks Workers United, the labor group organizing the effort. The strike will be the longest in the year-old unionization campaign.

In Pittsburgh, at least five Starbucks locations appeared to be affected by the walkout, based on social media posted Friday. Stores affected include ones in Bloomfield, South Side, Oakland, East Liberty and the North Hills.

Dustin Zeiler is a worker at the Liberty Avenue store in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood, the first Starbucks store in Pennsylvania to unionize.

At around noon Friday, another Bloomfield store at Liberty Avenue and Baum Boulevard shut down when a group ofworkers picketed outside. The store’s workers were striking, but Zeiler said some managers at other stores came to open the location, only to have to close it down shortly after because they didn’t have enough people to keep it open.

Zeiler said the picketing workers had also spoken to many potential customers at Liberty and Baum and shared with them information about why workers were striking and how customers could support them. He said they successfully turned away several customers to other neighborhood coffee shops.

“We are trying to let people know to please take your business elsewhere,” said Zeiler, who added that the strike is about bringing attention to Starbucks employees who have been fired after starting union efforts and for current employees who said that their hours have been cut.

He said the workers want Starbucks to negotiate a contract with the unions.

These @pghsbuxunited unionized workers outside of this Pittsburgh Starbucks said managers who crossed picket line today during 3 day strike just had to shut down store. Workers said they’ve been successfully turning customers away after informing them about their labor efforts pic.twitter.com/k48LRDLa4g

— Ryan Deto (@RyanDeto) December 16, 2022

Workers also picketed at Starbucks stores in Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood and the North Hills. Several stores in the Pittsburgh area have closed Friday because of the strike, including the two stores in Bloomfield.

University of Pittsburgh student Julia Dong showed up to the Liberty and Baum store on Friday, but left after learning about the strike. She said she was supportive of workers and wants to help spread the word about the strike.

“I have a friend who works at Starbucks and not everyone is aware of what is on,” said Dong. “We should try to help them out.”

This is the second major strike in a month by Starbucks’ U.S. workers. On Nov. 17, workers at 110 Starbucks stores held a one-day walkout. That effort coincided with Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day, when the company gives reusable cups to customers who order a holiday drink.

More than 264 of Starbucks’ 9,000 company-run U.S. stores have voted to unionize since late last year.

Starbucks opposes the unionization effort, saying the company functions better when it works directly with employees. But the company said last month that it respects employees’ lawful right to protest.

????THERE ARE SCABS AT SOUTHBOUND AND AT LIBERTY & BAUM!!! ALL HANDS ON DECK!!!!! ???? pic.twitter.com/kfVtUUfo9t

— Pittsburgh Starbucks Workers United (@pghsbuxunited) December 16, 2022

Southside East Carson has a bunch of scabs who don’t even work at this store but we are out here on the line!!! #doubledownstrike #UnionStrong pic.twitter.com/uTwnr6RGfs

— Pittsburgh Starbucks Workers United (@pghsbuxunited) December 16, 2022

Tori Tambellini, a former Starbucks shift supervisor and union organizer who was fired in July, said she will be picketing in Pittsburgh this weekend. Tambellini said workers are protesting understaffed stores, poor management and what she calls Starbucks’ “scorched earth method of union busting,” including closing stores that have unionized.

Workers United noted that Starbucks recently closed the first store to unionize in Seattle, the company’s hometown. Starbucks has said the store was closed for safety reasons.

Starbucks and the union have begun contract talks in about 50 stores but no agreements have been reached.

The process has been contentious. According to the National Labor Relations Board, Workers United has filed at least 446 unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks since late last year, including that the company fired labor organizers and refused to bargain. The company, meanwhile, has filed 47 charges against the union, among them allegations that it defied bargaining rules when it recorded sessions and posted the recordings online.

So far, the labor disputes haven’t appeared to dent Starbucks’ sales. Starbucks said in November that its revenue rose 3% to a record $8.41 billion in the July-September period.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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