JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If you're a fan of Starbucks you might want to plan on a different place to get your coffee on Thursday. Workers at hundreds of Starbucks stores are planning to strike on Thursday November 16th, but workers at the Mandarin Starbucks walked out a day early.
Coffee lovers in Mandarin looking to get their Starbucks fix were met with a locked door and a sign that said the store was temporarily closed, but that was not the first sign posted at that location on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day a different sign stating that the store was closed because the workers were on strike was taped to the front door of the store. A store manager took that sign down. With no sign posted to inform customers, some customers waited in the drive thru until they got fed up and drove off.
According to Starbucks Workers United, the union for Starbucks workers, more than 300 of their stores will be on strike Thursday during what they're calling "The Red Cup Rebellion". Red Cup Day is traditionally one of the busiest days for Starbucks, but the Mandarin location went on strike a day early, which left some customers frustrated.
"It's pretty frustrating because the next one [store] is kind of far away," said Chloe Jenkins.
"It's pretty frustrating right now, I have a long ride ahead of me and I need caffeine," said Selena Holmes.
Starbucks Workers United has 9 core demands that they want from the company- including higher wages and employer-paid healthcare. You can read more about the proposal that Starbucks Workers United has given to their corporate office here: https://sbworkersunited.org/proposal-update
Their strike in Mandarin drew mixed reviews from customers who just wanted coffee on a rainy day.
"They signed up for this job, so they should know what they're getting themselves into and they can quit if they don't like how it's going for them," said Ariana Brown.
"I 100% stand with the union and unionizing and saying that they do need a living wage, I don't have a problem with that," said LA Smith.
Starbucks corporate offices said that they proposed multiple contract negotiation dates for each of the unionized Jacksonville stores but the union did not agree to meet. You can check the negotiating status of each of the unionized Jacksonville locations or any other unionized Starbucks location elsewhere in the country by clicking this website.
Starbucks released the following information to First Coast News regarding the striking Mandarin location, the scheduled strike on November 16th as well as updates on negotiations with the union:
We are aware that Workers United has publicized a day of action at a small subset of our U.S. stores this week. We remain committed to working with all partners, side-by-side, to elevate the everyday, and we hope that Workers United’s priorities will shift to include the shared success of our partners and working to negotiate contracts for those they represent.
We continue to be disappointed by the lack of progress and response from Workers United and are unable to negotiate with our partners until Workers United agree to our requests for bargaining.
Starbucks has proposed to begin contract negotiations for our San Jose Blvd & Ricky Drive store on two separate occasions (4/21/23 and 5/30/23) and for our 1980 San Macro Blvd store on two separate occasions (4/21/23 and 5/31/23) and Workers United did not agree to meet.
Our Jacksonville area Partners aren’t the only ones waiting on Workers United to come to the bargaining table. Workers United has not made any effort to bargain for more than 300 stores they represent and in the last five months (since June 14, 2023, to be exact) and has failed to agree to a single company invitation to bargain a contract. We encourage the Workers United bargaining representatives for our Jacksonville Partners to meet us at the bargaining table to discuss their concerns and meaningfully progress negotiations towards first contracts for our partners.
As we join together to uplift the holiday season and reflect on the past year, we again call on Workers United to fulfill their obligations and engage in the work of negotiating first contracts on behalf of the partners they represent. Starbucks remains ready to progress in-person negotiations with the unions certified to represent partners.
Additional Background Information:
Collective bargaining progress by union:
Starbucks remains committed to enhancing the partner experience and offering everyone who wears the green apron a bridge to a better future. We're encouraged by the progress we've seen towards first contracts at stores where union representatives have approached bargaining with professionalism and an actual interest in discussing partner priorities with our bargaining committees. Of note, and as detailed below, we have reached multiple ratified CBAs for separate stores in Canada — and we expect that, as envisioned by the NLRA, partners at a subset of our U.S. company-owned stores will eventually be subject to the terms of ratified store-specific CBAs.
- Workers United: Workers United represents partners at approximately 340 active U.S. stores. To date, Workers United representatives have only responded to 20% of the more than 500 bargaining sessions that Starbucks has proposed for individual stores. In an ongoing attempt to progress negotiations for individual stores, Starbucks has continued to propose dates for bargaining sessions on a weekly basis — but Workers United has failed to confirm any proposed session since June 14, 2023, and has refused to meaningfully engage with the company to propose and confirm alternative dates for first bargaining sessions (Starbucks is currently waiting for Workers United to confirm five recently proposed sessions for individual stores in Denver, Colorado; Ledgewood, New Jersey; Clemson, South Carolina; Lexington, South Carolina; and Danbury, Connecticut).
- Teamsters: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters represent partners at our Greengate Centre store in Greensburg, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh). Starbucks representatives have met with the Teamsters bargaining committee in-person 12 times since Nov. 2022, have reached tentative agreements on nearly 30 sections for inclusion in a collective bargaining agreement and continue to schedule additional meetings to progress negotiations.
- United Steelworkers: The United Steelworkers represent a subset of partners at select company-owned stores in Canada. In the past year, we have reached two ratified collective bargaining agreements for individual stores in Alberta, Canada (bringing the total to three ratified contracts with the United Steelworkers for separate stores in the Canadian market) and are actively engaged in contract negotiations for other represented stores in British Columbia. Of note, the most recent CBA, for our Beaverbrook Drive store, was finalized and ratified by store partners earlier this month. Our Canadian company-operated stores are in the same business unit as our U.S. company owned stores.
Pushing back on claims made by Workers United:
- As referenced in our recent Q4 and Full Fiscal Year 2023 earnings call, Starbucks invested “over 20% of this year’s profits back into our partners and stores, through wages, training, equipment and new store growth.”
- Counter to claims made by union organizers, all partners at U.S. company-owned stores — including those represented by a union — will receive recently announced 3-4% regular annual wage increases, consistent with raises provided the past two years. More than 75 union-represented stores will also receive wage increases, differentiated by tenure, of up to 5% based on when store partners notified the Company of their intent to pursue union representation.
- We continue to create value for our partners by improving wages and scheduled hours for all partners — helping the average U.S. hourly partner realize a 20% increase in take home income over the past year, and doubling cash compensation since FY2020.
- Promotional days take many forms, like Frappuccino happy hour, Star Days, ThursYays and our annual reusable red cup giveaway. Scheduling for promotional days varies year-over-year, but they have been consistently used by the Company throughout our history to engage with and delight our customers.
- Our retail leaders have the flexibility to build and adjust staffing schedules to reflect the unique and dynamic needs of each store — balancing store resources and expected customer demand to ensure partners are on the floor when they're needed most. Notably, stores are often provided additional hours to augment staffing in support of planned promotional days.
- As recently announced, we're also working to implement additional store scheduling improvements to provide all hourly U.S. partners more stability, flexibility and consistency in their weekly work schedules.
- At stores where partners may choose to participate in publicized protest activities, we will make every effort to staff the store with partners interested and willing to work. Should local operators choose to close a store due to staffing constraints, we plan to offer partners wanting to work the opportunity to pick up shifts at other nearby stores. Partners choosing to participate in protest activities also have the right to submit their unconditional return to work at any time.
- Customers are encouraged to use the Starbucks App or our online store locator to find an open store nearby.