PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Baristas at five Starbucks locations in Philadelphia have joined a nationwide strike and will be on the picket line until Christmas.
Starbucks Workers United launched the strike on Friday, Dec. 20, alleging the company did not meet a promise made in February that it would negotiate a contract with its workers by the end of this year.
There is still no contract, and the union filed a new unfair labor practice charge, alleging the company refused to bargain and has acted in bad faith.
Noah Dixon, a barista at the Starbucks at 16th and Walnut streets in Center City, said the company isn’t taking negotiations seriously.
“They are making the claims that they were interested in participating in meaningful bargaining. But as we went to the bargaining table every month, we found they were coming back with less and less real proposals, until the point of this last bargaining session where they came back and said, ‘You’ll get a 1.5% raise next year,’” he said.
Given inflation over the last few years, Dixon said many workers are struggling with finances.
“That’s less than 35 cents an hour for most baristas, which is a number that you can’t really buy anything with,” he added. “As inflation comes every year, we get paid less and less … with these incredibly low raises.”
“We were ready to bring the foundational framework home this year, but Starbucks wasn’t,” Lynne Fox, president of Starbucks Workers United, said in a statement. “After all Starbucks has said about how they value partners throughout the system, we refuse to accept zero immediate investment in baristas’ wages and no resolution of the hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practices.”
Starbucks said the union prematurely ended a bargaining session this week. The company also said it already offers pay and benefits worth $30 per hour for baristas who work at least 20 hours per week.
Starbucks workers walked off the job on two occasions last year. Starbucks Workers United has said the latest strikes could spread to hundreds of stores across the country by Christmas Eve.
Starbucks Workers United represents about 10,000 workers at more than 530 Starbucks locations across the U.S.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.