A Starbucks employee boards the Starbucks union bus after Starbucks workers stood in solidarity with striking SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America (WGA) members outside Netflix studios on July 28, 2023 in Los Angeles, California .
Mario Tama | Getty Images
Starbucks Workers United said Tuesday that 98% of union baristas have voted to authorize a strike as they seek a contract with the coffee giant.
Negotiating delegates will return to negotiations with Starbucks on Tuesday during the last scheduled session of the year with the aim of agreeing on a “foundational framework.” Starbucks and Workers United have spent hundreds of hours at the bargaining table this year and both sides have put forward dozens of tentative agreements, the union said in a news release.
However, hundreds of unfair labor practice cases remain unresolved, and the union says Starbucks has not yet proposed a comprehensive package that would address barista pay and other benefits.
The authorization of the strike shows that relations between the two sides may be cooling again after thawing in late February when both sides said they had found a “constructive way forward” through mediation. Before that moment, Starbucks had spent more than two years fighting the union wave sweeping through the company's facilities. The company's efforts to curb the union movement sparked a backlash from some consumers and lawmakers, culminating in testimony from former CEO Howard Schultz on Capitol Hill.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company in September, pledged to bargain in good faith in a letter to the union during his first weeks on the job.
Niccol announced on Monday that the company will double its paid parental leave from March. However, baristas will reportedly receive a smaller annual pay increase next year than in previous years, following a drop in sales at its US locations.
Since the first election in Buffalo three years ago, more than 500 corporate-owned Starbucks cafes have voted to unionize under Workers United.
A Starbucks representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.