One year later, a union contract for Starbucks baristas is still brewing

It's been more than a year since Seattle coffee giant Starbucks agreed to start negotiating a national contract with the union representing baristas — Starbucks Workers United. But negotiations have stalled, baristas are growing frustrated, and each side has different ideas about how to turn the company around.

On Tuesday, ahead of Starbucks' annual shareholder meeting, Ty Newbill protested outside of the University Way Starbucks location.

Newbill has been a barista with Starbucks for six months, and while many of their colleagues are struggling with burnout, they're still determined to get a fair contract.

"I think our movement is inevitable for the company," Newbill said. "Our movement isn't anything that the company doesn't say they represent in their messaging and their culture; the union is just trying to hold them accountable to that."

More than four years after the first Starbucks location in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionize, workers gathered outside Starbucks' locations across the country to re-up their demands for a fair contract that provides competitive wages, staffing protections, and other demands.

Newbill says the Starbucks location they work at in Bremerton is understaffed, and workers are underpaid.

"I don't think anybody should be in that position where they're struggling to work, struggling to get paid," they said.

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During the annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, CEO Brian Niccol mostly avoided addressing the union, and instead talked to investors about the company's push to turn a corner, in a branding move described as "Back to Starbucks."

Starbucks has had a rocky start to the year. The company's sales declined 4% during the first financial quarter of 2025.

Niccol told shareholders he believes Starbucks can turn things around by focusing on "brand truths" that customers can depend on.

Going back to Starbucks, Niccol says, will mean simplifying the menu, getting customers their espresso in four minutes or less, and giving Sharpies back to baristas so they can once-again inscribe handwritten messages on cups.

But not everyone is on board. Newbill is skeptical of the changes Starbucks' CEO says are necessary to redefine Starbucks' café culture.

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Like the beans Starbucks' roasts, Newbill believes a café culture is built from the ground up, and that means investing in workers.

"To write on a cup is not a coffee shop culture. That's artificial," Newbill said. "I see how maybe giving people artificial connections might be good for the short-term profits, I don't think long-term you're building towards anything."

While most of the shareholder meeting focused on Starbucks' efforts to rebuild their reputation as a community café, the unionization movement was still on the minds of investors.

Shareholders considered a proposal to compile a report on the "human rights risks related to labor organizing," and at one point, an anonymous shareholder submitted a question asking when Starbucks would negotiate its first union contract.

"I do want to emphasize how much we as a company are committed to ensuring we offer the best job in retail. So, we start from that position," Niccol answered. "We are focused on ensuring that they are set up for success."

Starbucks Executive Vice President Sara Kelly added that the company and Starbucks Workers United have been at the bargaining table for nine months with a mediator.

"When a partner elects a union to represent them, we are committed to engaging in good faith with that union and be the partners who have selected that union to negotiate fair contracts," Kelly said.

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As for Newbill, they say they want shareholders and Starbucks' corporate leaders to understand that unionizing baristas wouldn't take away from the company, it would "build it up."

"I think when you invest in your workers, then they're more willing to invest their time," Newbill said. "I see as Starbucks goes and tries to make us more and more productive, I see my co-workers checking out. I think Starbucks is building to where all of the other large fast-food corporations are: high turnover rates, unhappy employees, and general disorganization."

That structure can produce profits, Newbill said, but they want shareholders to question whether the impact on workers is worth the cost.