By Gursimran Mehar, Bipasha Dey and Savyata Mishra
(Reuters) -A strike at Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) will expand to over 300 U.S. stores on Tuesday, with more than 5,000 workers expected to walk off the job before the five-day work stoppage ends later on Christmas Eve, the workers’ union said.
Starbucks, which operates more than 10,000 company-operated stores across the United States, said 98% of its stores remained open, with around 170 stores closed on Tuesday.
The workers union claimed more than 290 stores were “fully shut down”, and more than 300 stores were on strike as planned across 45 U.S. states.
The Christmas Eve strike on Tuesday is projected to be the largest ever at the coffee chain, Starbucks Workers United said. “These strikes are an initial show of strength, and we’re just getting started,” an Oregon barista said in a union statement.
The union, representing employees at 525 stores nationwide, has called strikes across 12 major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle, over issues of wages, staffing and schedules.
The strike began on Friday after talks between Starbucks and the union hit an impasse.
Starbucks declined to comment on the estimated impact to overall operations from the strike after having earlier said the expected impact was “very limited”.
“They’re (Starbucks) probably right with respect to no explicit topline impact,” said Sean Dunlop, a Morninstar analyst.
Earlier this month, the workers’ group rejected an offer of no immediate wage raises and a guarantee of a 1.5% pay increase in future years.
The union has also said that Starbucks was yet to present its workers with “a serious economic proposal.”
“We are ready to continue negotiations when the union comes back to the bargaining table,” the company said.
Starbucks had previously claimed that the union delegates prematurely ended the bargaining session.
