It’s been a year since Brian Niccol took the top job at Starbucks and promised change after years of bitter fighting with the company’s burgeoning union.
“I deeply respect the right of partners to choose, through a fair and democratic process, to be represented by a union,” Niccol wrote in a letter to the union last September. “If our partners choose to be represented, I am committed to making sure we engage constructively and in good faith with the union and the partners it represents.”
But 12 months on, the union and Niccol are still at loggerheads, according to workers, and the most successful corporate union drive in recent history has been stymied.
More than 12,000 workers at nearly 650 Starbucks stores around the US have unionized since December 2021, the fastest-growing union campaign in modern history. The growth has come despite hundreds of allegations of union-busting, retaliation and unfair labor practices lodged against Starbucks by the union.
Starbucks Workers United had made progress toward securing a first union contract with the company since bargaining sessions began in early 2024. But that progress has largely stalled since Niccol took over the company.
His first year on the job began with implementing a new strategy for the company, which he dubbed “Back to Starbucks”, which outlined an emphasis on customer service, decreasing wait times for orders and improving in-store experiences.
Niccol has praised the strategy, and the company had a record sales week on the release of its Fall menu this year after six consecutive quarters of same-store sales declines.
But workers organizing at Starbucks have criticized the strategy, citing increased demands on workers, such as having to write personalized messages on customer drink orders, without improvements to staffing or pay.
A survey conducted by Starbucks Workers United and the Strategic Organizing Center of 737 Starbucks workers found 91% reported understaffing at their stores in the past three months, and 93% said the policy changes under Niccol either had no impact or worsened the customer experience.
“It’s clear that ‘Back to Starbucks’ isn’t working and won’t succeed until we finalize a fair union contract with the hours, take-home pay and protections baristas need to do our jobs,” said Michelle Eisen, a spokesperson for Starbucks Workers United and a barista for 15 years.
“Brian has talked about like simplifying the menu to make things easier for partners, and wanting to get customers in and out of the stores faster, but these changes that he’s rolled out haven’t accomplished any of those things,” said Jasmine Leli, a Starbucks barista since December 2021 at a Starbucks store in Cheektowaga, New York, the second store to unionize in the US. “We really need him to get back to the table to finalize this contract so that we can start to turn things around.”
Leli warned Starbucks can expect further actions from unionized workers to force the company to get back to the bargaining table. The union has frequently utilized strikes and protests to address specific issues at stores.
“We are going to do whatever it takes to get them back to the table so that we can start to address the issues with the wages, scheduling and staffing,” Leli added. “We are the ones that are working in the stores and interacting with the customers day in and day out, and partners want to be a part of making change in the workplace. So that’s why stores are joining the fight.”
Niccol’s exorbitant compensation has been a point of criticism for workers and labor advocates; Niccol received $97.8m in total compensation in 2024, 6,666 times more than the median annual salary of a Starbucks worker at $14,674, the biggest CEO-to-worker pay gap among the top 500 corporations in the US. Starbucks claimed its average compensation, including benefits for workers who work at least 20 hours a week, is $30 an hour.
“If you’re the Starbucks CEO you get $96m for four months of work including a $5m bonus,” Senator Bernie Sanders wrote on social media in March. “If you’re a Starbucks union worker, the CEO is refusing to give you a decent raise to pay rent and buy groceries. Starbucks must end its greed & negotiate a fair union contract.”
A spokesperson for Starbucks said in response to criticism of Niccol’s compensation: “Starbucks believes Brian has established himself as one of the most effective leaders in our industry, with a proven track record of delivering long-term value to employees, customers and shareholders. The majority of his reported first-year compensation reflects multi-year replacement equity grants, awarded to offset compensation forfeited upon his departure from Chipotle, which are now directly tied to Starbucks future performance.”
The company also paid $3.8bn to shareholders in fiscal year 2024 through stock buybacks and dividends.
Starbucks Workers United have criticized Niccol’s pay, his private jet use and the $81m spent by Starbucks on a June convention in Las Vegas for 14,000 store managers and other leaders.
“It would take less than what Brian made in four months to settle fair contracts with our union,” stated the union in a recent video posted on Instagram.
In December 2024, thousands of baristas at Starbucks stores around the US went on strike, the largest strike in the company’s history, after the union claimed Starbucks backtracked on an agreement to finalize a deal.
In April 2025, the union rejected a proposal from Starbucks for 2% pay increases, with 81% of unionized stores voting it down due to its failure to adequately address other economic benefits and provide an immediate pay hike. A new proposal has yet to materialize.
In the midst of stalled negotiations, Starbucks Workers United has continued growing to 648 unionized storesfrom 500 stores in September 2024.
Diego Franco, a barista at Starbucks for five years at a unionized store in Chicago, Illinois, criticized the personalized note change when he says his store is often understaffed, resulting in long waits for orders.
“If I’m a customer, I don’t care to read a personalized note on my cup when I’m already waiting 20 minutes for my drink, and as a worker, I’m getting chastised for not having a Sharpie at all times,” Franco said. “It’s been a huge mishandling of so much money, but the company continues to lose, thinking that Brian or any of our previous CEOs have had the answers.”
“I believe if the company truly wanted to fix the problems happening in their stores, it could have happened by now,” he added. “Where the company might see a bottom line, I see human experiences, human lives that are affected by the work that we do. So I hope to preserve that and to make it better, not just for me and my co-workers, but for people who come in the stores.”
A spokesperson for Starbucks said: “Since last April 2024, Starbucks and Workers United have held more than nine bargaining sessions over 20 days and three mediation sessions over five days with a federal mediator. We’ve reached over thirty meaningful agreements on hundreds of topics Workers United delegates told us were important to them. We are ready to finalize a reasonable contract for represented partners, but we need the union to return to the bargaining table to finish the job.”
