Following our recent post about the potential impact of Starbucks worker strikes during the holiday season, the Starbucks PR team reached out to provide an official company statement and status update on the work stoppage that launched on Nov. 13, 2025.
It’s always gratifying when coverage reaches the right audience. The fact that Starbucks’ communications team took the time to respond demonstrates both the reach of our labor and employment insights and the company’s commitment to getting their perspective into the conversation. This is exactly the kind of dialogue that helps our readers get a complete picture of workplace developments.
Starbucks’ Official Response
Jaci Anderson, a Starbucks spokesperson, provided the following statement regarding the strike activity:
“Less than 1% of our coffeehouses are experiencing any level of disruption and the vast majority of our 240,000 partners came to work ready to serve customers and celebrate Reuseable Red Cup Day. Based on what we’ve seen, we’re on track to exceed our sales expectations for the day across company-operated coffeehouses in North America.”
“The facts show people like working at Starbucks. Partner engagement is up, turnover is nearly half the industry average, and we get more than 1 million job applications a year. Any agreement needs to reflect the reality that Starbucks offers the best job in retail, including more than $30 an hour on average in pay and benefits for hourly partners.”
The Takeaway
According to Starbucks, the strike’s impact has been minimal — affecting less than 1% of their 10,000+ U.S. company-owned and 7,000+ licensed locations. The company reports that operations remained largely normal and early sales figures actually exceeded expectations. Our original post predicted this would be the likely outcome.
This development underscores an important point for employers navigating strike activity: operational continuity is key for work stoppages. Few things undermine the credibility and support of unions more than success in the face of a strike, which often is a union’s strongest (or even only) tool to leverage a company into better labor agreement terms. It looks like Starbucks has been effectively managing the situation so far and offering a great illustration of this point.
As always, we’ll continue monitoring developments in this space and any implications for employers.
