Starbucks Strike

We will see if this makes any difference given that the number of stores involved is not really crazy high, but it is very much worth noting and keeping an eye upon:

A strike by workers at Starbucks will widen to reach more than 300 locations nationwide Tuesday escalating a five-day work stoppage over barista pay that has shuttered stores at the largest coffee chain in the United States amid the holiday rush.

The walkouts will spread on Christmas Eve to locations in Atlanta, Buffalo and other cities that have yet to be announced, Starbucks Workers United, the union representing baristas, said Monday.

The strike began Friday after negotiations with Starbucks over pay increases reached an impasse. By Monday, walkouts had reached stores in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, Dallas, New York City, Denver and Pittsburgh, among other cities, the union said, temporarily shuttering more than 60 locations.

If the strike expands as planned Tuesday, it will still only affect a small percentage of the more than 10,000 locations owned by Starbucks but will be the largest against the coffee giant to date, the union said. Baristas are expected to return to their jobs on Christmas or the following day.

300 stores is at best a slight inconvenience to both customers and profit. The thing is here that the organizing drive has largely stalled out thanks to Starbucks unionizing. We are also at a moment of people romanticizing strikes, so it’s quite frequent for people to want to strike because “striking gets the goods,” whether this is a good idea or not. So good luck to them, I hope it forces management to take the union more seriously.