On November 13, 2025, Starbucks workers in 180 union shops went on strike in response to an impasse over bargaining wage proposals. The stated goal of the strike, according to Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) union misleaders, was to break the impasse. The basic idea they have defended is that the Starbucks strike would cut off the supply of the Starbucks bosses’ profits and force the bosses to the bargaining table. Some of these cafes honored the strike authorization so courageously that they remained on strike for over two arduous months, but all of these shops have since returned to work without forcing Starbucks back to the bargaining table.
The results are predictable to more experienced workers. The union misleaders have halted further organizing with far too few stores organized for strike power to actually threaten the bosses’ profits, and the remaining misleaders of the union are too opportunistic to speak to the interests of the masses of coffee workers in a way that would inspire mass organizing for real strike power. The truth is that these workers are hungry for the kind of change only a combative class struggle union can provide. The problem of securing a strong contract in the Starbucks union campaign can best be described as the careful workings of a newly born business union whose misleaders ensure a vacuum of militant, class-conscious leadership, the only leadership with the possibility of bringing the fight to the bosses.
The legal unions, like SBWU, that win state recognition through NLRB elections play a role in frustrating the ability of advanced workers to organize independently and lead the movement. The character of these unions is class-collaborationist as a function of appeasing the state and capitalist class, rather than as the result of an unfortunate accident or any failing on the part of the workers’ struggle. The conciliatory attitude of the union misleaders toward the state breaks with the basics of organizing, namely the recognition that the struggle between the working class and the capitalist class is a zero-sum game, that whatever workers seek to gain, the bosses must lose, and vice versa. As a result, the misleaders of the legal unions, whose interests are tied to the capitalist state and the bosses, attempt to moderate and prolong each isolated social struggle of workers, whether by industry, trade, craft, company, or otherwise, to its ultimate dead end, extending the life of capitalism.
To challenge the class-collaborative character of SBWU in practice, workers must put forward a program in defense of their class interests on all fronts. Starbucks workers must organize within and outside the legal union, wherever there is the possibility to build a combative base of workers opposed to opportunism in their contract struggle and ready to fight for a program of class struggle. Starbucks workers affiliated with the Class Struggle Action Network in collaboration with food service workers have made practical the joint initiative of cross-union solidarity by successfully passing a solidarity resolution to support broader strikes coordinated across multiple unions.
The class-collaborative character of SBWU, which has solidified over the years of the contract campaign, clearly reveals that effective union organizing must be done not only independently of the company bosses, but also independently of opportunists of all stripes, including those within the legal unions. In unions that are decidedly unwinnable, organizing work outside the official unions is critical to advancing real organization. A close-knit organization on the shop floor can be vital in demonstrating class struggle methods as an effective alternative to the dead ends of business unionism.
The Starbucks contract campaign continues in an erratic direction, as none of the options provided by the leaders, such as consumer boycotts, consumer petitions, one-day strikes, and finger-wagging about “ethical-business”, have sufficed to force concessions. The union misleaders have called more one-day strikes than one can remember, and they are not about to abandon a policy that continues to fail to deliver for workers while providing a performative cover for their lack of real union combativity. For every continued call to strike, it will be the duty of worker-organizers in the contract campaign struggle to escalate these strikes to their strongest expression and draw out the lessons. Some of the strongest points of agitation this campaign has brought to bear include:
- Why do our union leaders draw our struggles out with one-day strikes without the necessary organizing investment to win material gains?
- Why not prioritize organizing more stores when real power is rooted in our capacity to shut down a company that remains mostly unorganized?
- Why are our leaders focusing on the point of consumption through consumer boycotts rather than the point of production through mass worker strikes?
- Why are we not organizing toward a broader coffee industry union, food service union, or class union to strengthen our strike power across the working class?
The clear failures of our union misleaders offer some of the strongest organizing ammunition for paving the way toward an alternative direction with a combative class union. Where the misleaders fail to bring material wins to workers, workers can use these failures as lessons to recognize and develop a higher consciousness around what it will actually take to force concessions from the bosses.
Moving forward with the contract struggle, workers will have to be realistic about what it will take to win a strong contract. It will take a cohesive group of workers united around a set of strong economic demands, a class struggle program, and a commitment to organizing a majority of stores for strike power. Movement toward this end can develop slowly during lulls in the labor movement or quickly in response to a wide-scale attack on the working class, but in either case, it is important to begin organizing a base independent of the union misleaders so that the development of a class union has room to grow. By working toward a class union, Starbucks workers stand to win a strong contract for all coffee workers and motivate other industries to follow the example of their victorious struggle.
