Colorado Springs Starbucks baristas join growing national strike for fair wages, labor practices
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – Workers from Colorado Starbucks locations are taking to the picket lines, joining a growing national strike against the company to protest what they say is the company's refusal to negotiate pay and address complaints about unfair labor practices.
The movement doesn't stop in Denver, though. Over the weekend, Colorado baristas joined Starbucks workers from eight other states, including Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, to protest lack of progress in contract negotiations nationwide, according to Starbucks Worker's United.
The union says the coffee chain refuses to meet its demands for immediate and future pay raises. They're also claiming unfair labor practices.
RELATED: Starbucks union strike expands to 9 states
The strike could grow to affect hundreds of stores across the country by Christmas Eve, according to the Associated Press. Workers at 535 stores have voted to unionize, but Starbucks has nearly 10,000 stores nationwide.
Tiffany Sparks, a shift supervisor and union delegate for a Colorado Springs Starbucks location on strike, said their baristas are striking with the aim of earning a livable wage.
"A lot of the baristas here are making about $15 an hour, a little over. That's not much over minimum wage, and we're getting close to 25 hours a week," Sparks said. "So we're just looking for something that makes sense, and something that we can live off of realistically."
Sparks said many of the store's baristas were hopeful for a raise this year, but the one offered by the company fell far short of their expectations.
"The offer that they gave us for the economic part of our contract is just, unfortunately unacceptable. Our new CEO makes around $58,000 an hour. And most baristas were just given about a 15, 20, 25 cent raise. And that is just astronomical," Sparks said. "The difference, it's unfair. We're the ones in here day in and day out with the customers that we know and love."
Many of the stores on strike in the state's capital city remained open this weekend after management replaced the striking union workers with managers and workers from nearby non-union stores.
In a statement, Starbucks said the strikes have had no "significant impact" to store operations, and that only a small handful of U.S. stores were impacted.
Starbucks Spokesperson Phil Gee sent the following statement to KRDO13:
"Workers United delegates prematurely ended our bargaining session this week. It is disappointing they didn’t return to the table given the progress we’ve made to date. Since April we’ve held more than nine bargaining sessions over 20 days. We’ve reached over thirty (30) meaningful agreements on hundreds of topics Workers United delegates told us were important to them, including many economic issues.
We are focused on enhancing the partner (employee) experience, with over $3 billion invested in the last three years. Starbucks offers a competitive average pay of over $18 per hour, and best-in-class benefits. Taken together they are worth an average of $30 per hour for baristas who work at least 20 hours per week. Benefits include health care, free college tuition, paid family leave and company stock grants. No other retailer offers this kind of comprehensive pay and benefits package.
Workers United proposals call for an immediate increase in the minimum wage of hourly partners by 64%, and by 77% over the life of a three-year year contract. This is not sustainable.
We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements. We need the union to return to the table."
