Starbucks strike expands to include more than 300 US stores: Union | Workers’ rights news

The strike over wages and staffing issues comes at one of the coffee chain’s busiest times of the year.

The Starbucks strike has spread to more than 300 of the coffee chain’s stores in the United States, with more than 5,000 workers expected to go on strike, the labor union said.

the Five-day strike It will end later Tuesday and comes in the middle of the Christmas holiday, one of the busiest times of the year for Starbucks.

Starbucks Workers UnionThe company, which represents employees at 525 stores across the country, said more than 60 U.S. stores in 12 major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle, were closed on Monday.

Talks between Starbucks and the union have reached an impasse over unresolved issues over wages, staffing and schedules, leading to the strike that began Friday.

Through a union contract, benefits, wages and improved working conditions can be in writing and cannot be reduced without bargaining, according to the United Workers website.

The union added that the Christmas Eve strike on Tuesday is expected to be the largest ever at the café chain. “These strikes are an initial show of strength, and we are just getting started,” one Oregon barista said in a union statement.

The union claimed that more than 290 stores were “completely closed” as a result of the strike.

Starbucks, which operates more than 10,000 company-operated stores across the United States, said 98% of its stores remained open, and said only about 170 stores were closed on Tuesday.

The company said Monday that it expects “very limited impact” on overall operations.

The company said: “We are ready to continue negotiations when the union returns to the negotiating table.”

The Seattle-based company had previously claimed that union representatives ended the negotiating session prematurely.

Earlier this month, the workers’ group rejected an offer to take no immediate pay rise and guarantee a 1.5% pay rise in coming years.

The union also said Starbucks has not yet presented its workers with a “serious economic proposal.”