By Josh Eidelson | Bloomberg
Starbucks and its union have agreed to bring in an outside mediator for contract negotiations in an effort to revive stalled talks and reach a landmark deal.
The company and Workers United “have made progress over the last nine months of bargaining, and we are committed to continuing to work together – with a mediator’s assistance – to navigate complex issues and reach fair contracts,” Starbucks and the union said in a joint statement emailed to Bloomberg News.
The union is “optimistic that Starbucks will move off of their fixed position on wage and benefits improvements in this next phase of negotiations,” barista and bargaining delegate Michelle Eisen said in a separate statement from Workers United.
The union and the company have been negotiating a template for first-time collective bargaining agreements covering more than 500 US cafes that have unionized since late 2021. After years of conflict, the two sides announced last February they had agreed to work together to resolve hostilities.
Starbucks and the union reported substantial progress in subsequent negotiating sessions, but talks broke down at the end of 2024 over the issue of pay. The union then carried out a five-day pre-Christmas strike and filed dozens of legal complaints against the company — a return to the sort of multi-front campaigns to pressure the company it deployed in 2022 and 2023.
Completing a deal with the union could burnish Starbucks’ brand and ease pressure from lawmakers, institutional investors, employees and customers. For organized labor, completing a collective bargaining deal with Starbucks would be a landmark win that could help inspire organizing at more of the company’s roughly 10,000 corporate-run US cafes and at other major employers.
The union has said that Starbucks was offering no immediate raises and future pay hikes of only 1.5% a year, while the company has said the union made unsustainable proposals.