Starbucks workers hold one-day strike; demand contract negotiations
Starbucks employee and union organizer Liv Ryan was among workers who picketed in front of the Lynbrook store on Wednesday. Credit: Danielle Silverman
Unionized workers at a Lynbrook Starbucks located off Sunrise Highway picketed outside the store Wednesday morning as part of a national one-day strike involving more than 100 locations of the Seattle-based coffee giant.
Workers there and at a Farmingville location were demanding the company fully staff stores and negotiate a contract in good faith. Of the nearly 300 stores that have unionized nationwide since late 2021, including the Island’s five union shops, not one has secured a contract with Starbucks.
Employees at the local union stores, which also include Massapequa, Westbury and Wantagh locations, have voted to join the Workers United New York New Jersey Regional Board, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.
Workers at a Great Neck location narrowly voted against the union, a result Workers United has challenged with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging unfair labor practices on Starbucks' part.
“It’s so reassuring and reaffirming to be a part of something that’s bigger than just Long Island,” Liv Ryan, a union organizing employee at the Lynbrook location, said in a statement. “I hope that Starbucks corporate starts accepting and joining us in solidarity.”
The one-day strike took place days after Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced that he was stepping down from the post two weeks earlier than planned.
The labor action also came the day before the company's Thursday annual shareholder meeting, and a week before Schultz is scheduled to testify before a U.S. Senate committee examining the coffee chain’s response to the union campaign.
