Starbucks Workers Are Getting Ready for a Potential Strike
As contract negotiations with the company stall, unionized Starbucks workers at dozens of stores are preparing for a potential strike. Workers are now holding practice pickets and signing customers up to boycott the coffee giant in the event of a walkout.
Starbucks workers and supporters practice picket outside a Starbucks location in New York City on Wednesday, October 1, 2025. (Michael Nagle / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Unionized Starbucks workers are electing strike captains and getting customers to pledge they won’t cross picket lines. They’re amassing in front of stores with picket signs, borrowing a slogan that UPS Teamsters used during their 2023 contract campaign: “Just Practicing for a Just Contract.”
Thirty-eight stores held practice pickets in early October, and starting October 25, eighty more stores plan to hold pickets and sign up customers to a “No Contract, No Coffee” pledge, promising not to patronize any Starbucks in case of a strike.
“We’re all strike-ready,” said Jhoana Canada, a barista in Nashville. She said that when they practiced picketing at her store, many customers learned for the first time that they were unionized. “It’s just basically an ongoing, overpouring amount of support,” she said.
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