The Guardian - Thousands of Starbucks baristas are on strike across the US, warning the world’s largest coffee chain to brace for the “longest and biggest” bout of industrial action in its history.
Barely a year after Brian Niccol, the Starbucks CEO, tried to draw a line under bitter divisions between its management and unionized workers, pledging to “engage constructively” with them, the American coffee giant is now grappling with an escalating strike during its lucrative holiday trading season.
About 2,500 workers are striking across 85 cities and 120 stores – and urging customers to steer clear. Starbucks claims less than 1% of its coffee houses have experienced disruption due to the industrial action.
But the union, Starbucks Workers United, which represents 11,000 baristas at more than 550 stores, is threatening to escalate the strike far beyond its current footprint unless executives make concessions during contract negotiations.
Four years after the first Starbucks-owned US store voted to form a union, defying intense resistance from the company, relations between both sides have deteriorated.
“It’s still shocking to me to wake up and have them every day still fighting us the way that they’re fighting us,” Michelle Eisen, spokesperson for Starbucks Workers United, told the Guardian. “Because we have proven time and time again that we’re not going anywhere.”
No comments:
Post a Comment