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Starbucks Workers United plans to strike starting on November 13, the company’s Red Cup Day promotion, if the company doesn’t finalize a labor contract by then. The event is one of the busiest days for the coffee chain, when customers receive complimentary reusable holiday cups with a holiday drink purchase.
Starbucks employees are calling for higher take-home pay and more flexible hours. The strike is set to begin in 25 cities across the country, though more stores will join in if the company doesn’t act, a spokesperson for the union said.
Jaci Anderson, a Starbucks spokesperson, told CBS News the company would have welcomed a discussion.
“When they’re ready to come back, we’re ready to talk,” she said.
Anderson added that the union proposed an immediate 65 percent and 77 percent pay raise over the next three years. The union spokesperson, however, said the company had combined a group of separate wage proposals the union had laid out.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol told CBS News that the union’s proposals have been unreasonable, and said the company “already give[s] them the best job in retail.” He cited the low 50 percent turnover and “best” benefits and wages.
Employees currently earn $30 an hour in pay and benefits, and store managers have salaries. Members of the union say it isn’t enough to get by.
“Our fight is about actually making Starbucks jobs the best jobs in retail,” Jasmine Leli, a Starbucks barista said. “Right now, it’s only the best job in retail for Brian Niccol.”
Over 200,000 people work at the 10,000 Starbucks locations in North America, and the union represents 9,500 baristas across 550 Starbucks cafes. It said Wednesday that 92 percent of members voted in favor of the strike.
If the union goes through with it, the strike would become its third national work stoppage in the past year. In May, employees protested their new dress code and last December they walked out as part of “the strike before Christmas.”
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Ava Levinson
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