Starbucks workers ask customers to delete Starbucks app

Unionized Starbucks baristas are asking their supporters to remove the Starbucks app from their phones to put pressure on the coffee chain at the bargaining table.

The request is the latest escalation in workers’ long battle for a first contract. The Workers United union has organized about 650 stores across the country since the end of 2021, but is still fighting for a collective bargaining agreement that guarantees wage increases and benefits.

“It is disgusting that a corporation worth billions of dollars would force employees to rely on SNAP and Medicaid so they can continue flying their CEO to the office on a private jet,” Jasmine Leli, a barista and union leader, said in a statement Thursday. He was referring to Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol’s 1,000-mile trip from Southern California to Starbucks headquarters in Seattle.

In emails and social media posts this week, the union urged customers to uninstall the app and encouraged five friends to do the same. A successful campaign could deal a blow to sales: Starbucks said in an earnings call last year that more than 30% of your transactions They came from the cell phone.

Starbucks spokeswoman Jaci Anderson said the union’s effort had not affected sales as of Thursday.

“We have not seen, nor do we expect, any impact on customers’ use of the Starbucks app,” Anderson told News themezone.

Baristas have been trying to force the company to reach a groundbreaking labor agreement for the largely non-union retail sector. None of Starbucks’ roughly 11,000 corporate stores were organized until Workers United began its campaign in upstate New York less than five years ago.

But the first contracts can be very difficult to get. Workers United has accused Starbucks of dragging its feet in talks and reneging on previous promises, while Starbucks has claimed it was the union that walked away from the table. The two sides have not met to negotiate for more than a year.

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Anderson said the company and the union have reached tentative agreements on 30 issues. But those wouldn’t include the biggest issues, like wages and health care, which are often the last to be resolved.

“Starbucks offers the best jobs in retail,” Anderson said. “That’s why our turnover is approximately half the sector average and we receive more than a million job applications each year.”

The call to remove the Starbucks app comes on the heels of a strike over unfair labor practices at about 180 unionized stores that began in November. Workers at the vast majority of those locations have since returned to work, according to Starbucks.

Silvia Baldwin, a barista who went on strike in Philadelphia, recently told News themezone that her coworkers wouldn’t let up until a solid contract was struck. He said Starbucks risked damaging its brand by resisting.

“If the company wants to act rationally and in its own interest, they will really engage with us and listen to us,” Baldwin said. “We know this company is more than capable of doing the right thing.”