Now in fourth week, Starbucks strike keeps growing

Cleveland

Now in its fourth week, the strike at unionized Starbucks stores continues to grow and intensify. As of Dec. 6, Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) reported in an email to supporters: “Hundreds of union baristas from 26 new stores joined our national [Unfair Labor Practice (ULP)] strike this week. That brings us to 3,000 baristas at over 145 cities holding the picket line.”

Strikers outside downtown Cleveland store, Dec. 9, 2025. WW Photo: Martha Grevatt

About 12,000 Starbucks workers are unionized. Their strike began on Nov. 13 with about 1,000 workers walking the picket line. The three main demands are for higher wages, guaranteed longer hours and the resolution of hundreds of ULP charges the union has filed in response to blatant union busting.

In New York City, cops arrested 12 strikers who were picketing with hundreds of supporters outside the Empire State Building. Meanwhile, under a court case settlement in New York City, the chain will pay a total of $35.5 million to over 15,000 Starbucks workers who were illegally denied stable schedules under the city’s Fair Workweek law.

One militant tactic being used in several locations is the deployment of “flying pickets” who stand in front of trucks before a delivery is made to a store. If the driver is a member of the Teamsters union, they have a contractual right to refuse to cross a picket line. This successful tactic, which involves following the truck from one delivery to the next, has been a collaborative effort between SBWU and the Teamsters Joint Council in the areas where it has been tried.

SBWU asks supporters to “stand firm with us and don’t buy Starbucks.”