On November 13, 2025, striking Starbucks employees walk on a picket line outside a Starbucks store in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
A week after baristas threatened to stage the “largest and longest” strike in Starbucks history, the Workers United union announced it would add more than 20 new cities and stores to its strike list.
The union announced Thursday that it will now strike at 95 stores in 65 cities, with about 2,000 baristas currently on strike. On Wednesday, baristas and their allies also picketed and held a rally outside the company’s distribution center in York, Pennsylvania. Starbucks said there were no disruptions to its operations in York.
Workers United said most of the striking stores had to close on the first day of the strike due to staffing issues, and about 50 stores were affected by the worker shortage in the days that followed. Starbucks said affected stores are often able to reopen quickly, and less than 1% of stores are disrupted by strikes.
The strike does not appear to have affected foot traffic or sales so far, according to data from the company and Placer.ai. The number of pedestrians on Red Cup Day, when the strike began, increased by 44.5% compared to the daily average from January 1 to November 14 this year, according to data from a location tracking company.
CEO Brian Nicol touted a successful holiday launch so far in a memo to employees last week.
“Together, we set a new record. Last Thursday’s holiday launch was our biggest sales day in North American history in North America, and yesterday we had our strongest reusable Red Cup day ever,” the memo sent Friday said.
The union began organizing at Starbucks in 2021 and says it now represents more than 11,000 workers in more than 550 stores. This week, the company announced that five non-union stores have filed for union elections, including stores in the Baltimore, Maryland, area, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Little Rock, Ark. The company told CNBC last week that it only has 9,500 union representatives.
Workers United is seeking new proposals that address the biggest problems in getting the deal done. These include improving working hours, increasing wages, and resolving hundreds of unfair labor practice charges brought against Starbucks. Since negotiations between the two sides broke down at the end of last year, the two sides have not actively negotiated a contract. The strike has not changed that fact so far.
Starbucks and the union went to arbitration in February, and hundreds of barista representatives voted against Starbucks’ proposed stimulus package in April. Both sides have held the other party responsible for not reaching a negotiated agreement and have said they are willing to negotiate.
The strike could hurt Starbucks’ performance during the busy holiday season, which typically boosts sales and is key to the chain’s plans to turn around its U.S. performance under Nicol. Starbucks ended nearly two consecutive years of same-store sales declines in its most recently reported quarter. The company says less than 1% of its stores have been affected by past strikes.
Starbucks claims that all of its stores are ready to serve customers this holiday season.
“As we have said, 99% of our 17,000 stores in the U.S. are open and welcoming customers,” Starbucks spokesperson Jaycee Anderson said in a statement regarding the strike expansion. “These include many stores where unions have publicly stated they will strike, but have not closed or reopened.”
“Regardless of the union’s plans, we do not anticipate any significant disruption. We are open to discussions when the union is ready to return to the bargaining table,” Anderson said. “The facts are clear: Starbucks offers some of the best jobs in retail, with hourly partner pay and benefits averaging $30 an hour. People choose to work here and stay here. Our turnover rate is less than half the industry average, and we receive more than 1 million job applications each year.”
