Workers at Denver’s unionized Starbucks stores went on strike Saturday to protest what they say is the coffee company’s refusal to negotiate wages and address unfair labor practice complaints.
The strike organized by Starbucks Workers United began Friday at Starbucks locations in Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles and expanded to stores in Denver, Columbus and Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Barista Shay Mannik joined his colleagues on the picket line outside the chain’s University Hills store Saturday morning. He said the group was “in good spirits” and had set up lawn chairs after the store’s management removed patio furniture from the location to prevent it from being used by employees.
Mannik shares a house with a co-worker and another roommate, but says he still spends more than half of his income on rent every month. He said he has seen other colleagues scale back college plans and struggle to support children on hourly wages barely above the Denver minimum.
“They completely forced us to fight for a living wage here,” Mannik said. “They have the money, and they don’t invest it in the people who make their profits.”
Starbucks Workers United said in its press release that Starbucks submitted a proposal this month during ongoing contract negotiations that addressed wages but did not include any immediate wage increases and only guaranteed a 1.5% wage increase in future years, which, according to the union, amounts to less than 50 cents per year. hours for most baristas.
The union warned that the strike will expand to include more stores every day until Tuesday or until Starbucks meets the union’s demands for raises and resolutions to what it says are hundreds of labor complaints.
Starbucks did not respond to questions about the union’s grievances and the status of negotiations in an emailed statement, but said the ongoing strike had “no significant impact on our store operations.”
“Only a small handful of our U.S. stores are affected,” the company wrote. “We respect our partners’ right to engage in lawful strike activity, and we appreciate the thousands of partners across the country who continue to support each other and deliver the Starbucks experience for our customers.”
Six Starbucks stores in Denver are unionized under Workers United. On Friday, employees at a seventh store at Alameda Avenue and Federal Boulevard announced that they, too, are petitioning to participate.
The union noted in its news release that the last weekend before Christmas is typically one of the busiest times for the chain.
“Union baristas know their value, and they will not accept any offer that does not treat them as true partners,” Lynne Fox, president of Workers United, said in the news release.
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