Zohran Mamnai takes unusual step for mayor-elect
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani joined Starbucks baristas on a picket line Monday to celebrate a $38.9 million deal The city came to the coffee chain after a years-long labor investigation.
As part of the settlement, Starbucks will pay $35.5 million to at least 15,000 workers for violating the city’s Fair Workweek Law, which requires fast-food companies to provide employees with regular schedules set two weeks in advance.
The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection said it is the largest settlement of its kind in the city’s history.
Flanked by striking union baristas, Mamdani promised Monday that his administration would support workers and “hold these types of corporations accountable.”
“When I become mayor of this city, I will continue to picket workers across the five boroughs,” said Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist who will be sworn in as mayor on Jan. 1. “We want to build an administration that is characterized by being there for workers every step of the way.”
He added: “When you are mayor of New York City, you have a platform… a platform where you can talk about the hundreds of times Starbucks has violated labor laws.”
Mamdani was joined on the picket by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I). Sanders said it was “an honor” for them to “support the striking Starbucks workers.”
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The deal with Starbucks was announced by the administration of outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped out of the race in September. Adams said in a statement that the “historic” agreement “would put tens of millions of dollars back into the pockets of working New Yorkers.”
Implemented in 2017the city’s Fair Workweek law aims to make retail workers’ schedules more consistent by prohibiting last-minute shift cancellations and “on-call” scheduling, in which employees must be available but may not actually work. The law also includes particular provisions for fast food companies, including a 14-day scheduling notice.
New York’s ordinance is similar to those passed in other progressive cities in recent years with the backing of unions and worker centers.
Starbucks said in a statement that supports the objectives of the law but that “its complexity creates real-world challenges.”
“Here’s the reality: Even minor schedule changes can result in a violation of the law,” the company said. “The law treats almost any adjustment as a potential problem, including starting a shift two hours later than planned, even if total hours and pay remain the same.”
Starbucks said these days more employees are “getting schedules that fit their lives” while the company “stays aligned with local laws like Fair Workweek.”
“When I become mayor of this city, I will continue to picket workers across the five boroughs.”
-Zohran Mamdani
The deal comes at a time when Starbucks employees at more than 600 stores nationwide are trying to negotiate their first collective bargaining agreements with the company. The Workers United union says it now represents about 11,000 Starbucks workers who are pushing for higher wages and better benefits.
Workers at some of those stores have gone on strike in recent days in an effort to pressure the company to reach a deal. As News themezone recently reported, it has been almost four years since the union won its first choice in a store in upstate New York, preceding a wave of national organizing.
Starbucks has about 10,000 corporate-owned locations in the United States, and the company said less than 1% of them have been affected by the recent strikes.
Both sides have accused each other of delaying contract negotiations. Jaci Anderson, a company spokesperson, told News themezone in an email that the company was willing to meet with the union at the negotiating table. “Instead, they are focused on organizing and promoting a protest in New York City, where they represent only 200 of the 4,500 members in New York City,” Anderson said.
Mamdani said at the picket that the baristas’ proposals were “not demands of greed” but “demands of decency.”