Delete the Starbucks App Now, Say Striking Workers

Starbucks barista Christi Gomoljak has been on strike for 80 days.

Managers at her Disney store in Anaheim, California had taken away the workers’ restroom without consultation. “There was a note on our break table that we were losing our employee restroom,” she said. Workers would have to go elsewhere in the busy theme park.

Management also accused workers of not really being sick when they took their sick leave, said Gomoljak. On top of that, “We were told by our store managers not to talk to each other.

“On November 8th, the manager said, ‘If you don't like it, you can leave.’ So we did!” The workers all walked out together. The outlet is one of the busiest in the country, with over 100 workers.

“It turns out that managers and greedy CEOs are the best labor organizers ever,” she said.

The company has been trying to keep the store open, but has only been able to run limited hours, she said, and has not been able to take mobile orders.

LONG STRIKE

Across the country, around 50 Starbucks stores are still on an extended strike that started last November, while baristas at dozens of others have walked out on short strikes, shutting down stores unexpectedly. At its peak, 150 stores were striking in 100 cities.

In Minneapolis, seven stores struck for the January 23 day of action against ICE. A barista at one striking store said the threat of being grabbed by ICE has deterred his regular customers of Somali heritage from coming in.

Since the strike started, sixteen more stores have voted to unionize with Starbucks Workers United, bringing the total to 666 stores last week. That figure echoes CEO Brian Niccol’s pay: 666 times that of the average barista.

The workers are still seeking a first contract, five years after they started unionizing. While the company finally came to the table in February 2024, negotiations bogged down when it came to scheduling and pay, workers said. After Brian Niccol was hired in fall 2024, talks stalled. “Obviously, we knew that getting to the economic portion of the bargaining is always going to be the most challenging part,” said Tyler Cochran, a barista in downtown Manhattan. “So the timing there kind of aligned with Brian taking over.”

HOMEMADE SOUP

K.C. Ihekwaba, in Lafayette, Colorado (near Boulder), has been on strike for 81 days, and “our fire for change is still burning,” they said. “What we're asking for has not changed. We're demanding livable wages, stable and predictable hours, and an end to union busting.”

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A Starbucks barista for 5 years, Ihekwaba described transferring to Lafayette and immediately getting 30 or more hours a week, while existing baristas were starved for hours: “I was shocked to find out that they, with similar availability as me, were getting scheduled for less than half of what I was.”

The company touts its health and education benefits, but it only provides them if you have worked the equivalent of 20 hours a week in the last 6 months. Baristas say the company’s scheduling is often designed to keep them under that threshold.

In New York City, the company’s scheduling practices are illegal. In December, the company agreed to shell out $38.9 million in fines for violating the city’s Fair Workweek statute by involuntarily keeping workers part-time and not providing predictable schedules, according to the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.

“Don't get me started on how many times at my past store my schedule could be changed without notice the night before a shift, only to wake up the next day to several phone calls and texts saying that I was late to a shift that didn’t exist the day before,” said Ihekwaba.

Ihekwaba said the community support received by picketing baristas has been overwhelming, from joining the picket line to bringing homemade soup to “covering grocery store picket line tabs to make sure we’re well-fed and hydrated.”

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani are among politicians who have joined the picket lines nationally.

DELETE THE APP

Starbucks is rolling out a revamped “Rewards” program March 10, with “Green, Gold, and Reserve” membership tiers, aimed at winning customers back.

“I don't think that it's just a coincidence that they chose right now, amid all the media coverage about the prolonged strike and declining public opinion, to release this,” said Ihekwaba on a recent supporter call. “But we’re asking everyone to delete the Starbucks Rewards app until we win our contract.”

After you delete the Starbucks Rewards app from your phone, said Gomoljak, get five friends, co-workers, “even frenemies” to do the same. (And no, that doesn’t mean that any money you have in there will go to Starbucks, it’ll still be in your account.)

“Delete the app. Cease using it, and show Starbucks that you’re standing with us in solidarity,” said Ihekwaba.

[More on how to support the strike can be found at No Contract, No Coffee.]