PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Starbucks employees at three Philadelphia stores went on strike Friday morning in solidarity with coworkers across the country.
“What do we want?” “Contract!” “When do we want it?” “Now!” Starbucks workers chanted Friday outside a University City location.
They and their Center City colleagues joined about 1,000 baristas across 100 stores nationwide in a three-day “double down strike,” an unfair labor practice effort protesting Starbucks’ recent closures of stores that were unionized or had voted to do so.
“We are the very foundation of this multi-million dollar company’s success,” said Devon Moore on the University City location picket line. “Being able to negotiate simple things like a livable wage, just sitting down and having a civil process to fulfill. You just think it would be so much easier.”
“Every bargaining session so far, they just immediately walked out on us,” barista Jacob Longenucker explained. “In response, we are shutting down our stores until they will show that they will sit down with us in good faith and put together a contract.”
This strike will be the longest in the year-old unionization campaign.
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Starbucks workers at more than 110 stores, including Philadelphia, participated in a one-day strike on Nov. 17. They walked out in a “Red Cup rebellion,” leaving some of the coffee chain’s stores unstaffed on one of its busiest days of the year, Red Cup day. The company marks the day by giving reusable cups to customers who order a holiday drink.
The Philadelphia stores participating in the strike are:
• 3401 Walnut St.
• 1900 Market St.
• 3400 Civic Center Blvd., inside Penn Medicine Perelman Center
These stores were three of four that voted to unionize back in May.
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.
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, Starbucks 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.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.