Workers at Starbucks stores plan to go on a five-day strike starting Friday to protest lack of progress in contract negotiations with the company.
The strikes are scheduled to begin in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle and could spread to hundreds of stores across the country by Christmas Eve.
Starbucks Workers United, the union that has organized workers at 535 company-owned U.S. stores since 2021, said Starbucks has failed to honor a commitment made in February to reach a labor agreement this year. The union also wants the company to resolve outstanding legal issues, including hundreds of unfair labor practice charges that workers have filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
The union noted that Starbucks' new Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who started in September, could make more than $100 million in his first year on the job. But the company recently proposed an economic package with no new wage increases for unionized baristas now and a 1.5% increase in future years, the union said.
“Union baristas know their value, and they’re not going to accept a proposal that doesn’t treat them as true partners," said Lynne Fox, president of Workers United.
Seattle-based Starbucks said Workers United prematurely ended a bargaining session this week. Starbucks has nearly 10,000 company-owned stores in the U.S.
“We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements. We need the union to return to the table,” Starbucks said in a statement.
Starbucks said it already offers pay and benefits — including free college tuition and paid family leave — worth $30 per hour for baristas who work at least 20 hours per week.
The strikes aren't the first during Starbucks' busy holiday season. In November 2023, thousands of workers at more than 200 stores walked out on Red Cup Day, a day when the company usually gives away thousands of reusable cups. Hundreds of workers also went on strike in June 2023 to protest after the union said Starbucks banned Pride displays at some stores.
The union and the company struck a different tone early this year, when they returned to the bargaining table and pledged to reach an agreement. Starbucks said it has held nine bargaining sessions with the union since April, and has reached more than 30 agreements with the union.
But the two sides now appear to be at an impasse.
“In a year when Starbucks invested so many millions in top executive talent, it has failed to present the baristas who make its company run with a viable economic proposal,” said Fatemeh Alhadjaboodi, a Starbucks barista from Texas and bargaining delegate, in a statement.
FILE - Shoppers at the Walden Galleria in Buffalo, NY, stop by the Starbucks kiosk on Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
HONG KONG (AP) — Global shares were mostly lower Friday as markets awaited U.S. personal spending data for November that are due later in the day.
Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.3% to 8,078.21 and the CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.9% to 7,226.70. Germany’s DAX was 0.9% lower to 19,780.63.
The future for the S&P 500 slipped 0.4% and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.2% lower.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.3% to 38,701.90 after the release of November inflation data on Friday. Japan's core inflation rate, which excludes fresh food prices, rose 2.7% year-on-year, surpassing expectations.
The data followed the Bank of Japan's decision on Thursday to keep its benchmark rate at 0.25%, which pushed the dollar higher against the Japanese yen.
The dollar was trading at 156.86 yen on Friday, down from 157.43 yen but still higher than the average of 150 yen earlier this month.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.2% to 19,720.70 while the Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% lower to 3,368.07 after China’s central bank kept its loan prime rates unchanged on Friday. The one-year lending rate, which affects corporate and most household loans, remained at 3.1%, while the five-year rate, used as a benchmark for mortgage rates, stayed at 3.6%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 1.2% to 8,067.00. South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.3% to 2,404.15.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 edged 0.1% lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose less than 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1%.
This week’s struggles have taken some of the enthusiasm out of the market, which critics had been warning was overly buoyant and would need everything to go correctly for it to justify its high prices. But indexes remain near their records, and the S&P 500 is still on track for one of its best years of the millennium with a gain of 23%.
Traders are now expecting the Federal Reserve to deliver just one or maybe two cuts to interest rates next year, according to data from CME Group. Some are even betting on none. A month ago, the majority saw at least two cuts in 2025 as a safe bet.
Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they give the economy a boost and goose prices for investments, but they can also provide fuel for inflation.
Treasury yields were mixed a day after shooting higher on expectations that the Fed would deliver fewer cuts to rates in 2025. Reports on the U.S. economy came in mixed.
One showed the overall economy grew at a 3.1% annualized rate during the summer, faster than earlier thought. The economy has remained remarkably resilient even though the Fed held its main interest rate at a two-decade high for a while before beginning to cut them in September.
A separate report showed fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, an indication that the job market also remains solid. But a third report said manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region is unexpectedly contracting again despite economists’ expectations for growth.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.57% from 4.52% late Wednesday and from less than 4.20% earlier this month.
But the two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for action by the Fed in the near term, eased back to 4.31% from 4.35%.
In other dealings, U.S. benchmark crude oil gave up 57 cents to $68.81 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 60 cents to $72.28 per barrel.
The euro rose to $1.0380 from $1.0367.
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
