New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Friday (November 14) pledged his support for an ongoing strike of more than one thousand Starbucks workers in the United States, calling for a boycott of the coffee chain.ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEOIn a post on X, he wrote, “Starbucks workers across the country are on an Unfair Labor Practices strike, fighting for a fair contract. While workers are on strike, I won’t be buying any Starbucks, and I’m asking you to join us. Together, we can send a powerful message: No contract, no coffee.”The strike began on November 13, marked as the “Red Cup Day”, which sees the company give free reusable cups to customers under a promotional offer. It also comes ahead of the holiday season, which is when Starbucks introduces several unique and popular seasonal beverages. What are the workers demanding, and how has Starbucks responded to them? We explain.Workers have demanded better working conditions for years now, even organising into unions — an activity that has seen an increase in the country in the last decade or so, across a range of industries.According to Starbucks Workers United, a union that began functioning in New York in 2021, the decision to form a collective was a result of workers across stores facing persistent issues. These included “Short staffing and unpredictable scheduling, low wages, harassment, and more. Meanwhile, Starbucks raked in billion-dollar profits while touting social responsibility and progressive values. Increasingly, that rhetoric has failed to match our experience as baristas.”Today, it includes more than 12,000 baristas, who demand “a fair contract with higher pay, better staffing and hours, and an end to union busting.”What was the trigger this time, and how did Starbucks respond?Story continues below this adThe current protests are driven by failed negotiations between the company and the workers to agree on a pay rise and worker benefits. In April, Reuters reported that union delegates involved in contract bargaining voted to reject the company’s proposal that guaranteed annual raises of at least 2%.In Explained | Explained: Apple, Amazon, Starbucks and the trend of workers forming unions in USIn a statement, the company said that “Starbucks offers the best job in retail, including more than $30 an hour on average in pay and benefits for hourly partners. Workers United, which represents only 4% of our partners, chose to walk away from the bargaining table. We’ve asked them to return—many times. If they’re ready to come back, we’re ready to talk.”These negotiations have come amid a downturn for the company. In April, Starbucks’ sales fell for four straight quarters. CEO Brian Niccol, who took over in September 2024, said that they planned a “Back to Starbucks” strategy to focus on customer experiences and serve as “a welcoming coffeehouse where people gather and where we serve the finest coffee, handcrafted by our skilled baristas.”Niccol also made headlines in 2024, when it was reported that he would commute from his home in California to the headquarters in Seattle (covering around 1,500 km) every week via a corporate jet. It was justified based on his track record of turning around the Mexican fast food chain Chipotle. However, climate activists criticised the move, especially in the face of Starbucks claiming it sought to reduce the amount of plastic in its cups.What is the union’s role here?Story continues below this adThe Starbucks negotiations and protests are part of a larger shift in the US, where unionisation has seen increasing public support in recent years, while many companies have criticised it. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz had told The New York Times some years ago, “We don’t believe that a third party should lead our people.”Explained Economics | How Starbucks’ leadership change could impact customer experience in 3 waysThe US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the union membership rate, or the percentage of wage and salary workers who were members of unions, stood at 9.9% in 2024. According to the Pew Research Centre, the share has fallen since 1983, when 20.1% of workers were union members.Unions expanded in the post-Great Depression period in the US. President Franklin D Roosevelt signed laws that made it easier for workers to form unions to boost the general standard of living. However, workers had to fight for the right to unionise. An important reason for unionisation was the growing wealth of business owners and their vast difference from the workers’ own wages. By the 1970s and 1980s, however, President Ronald Reagan’s push for deregulation weakened the movement.At present, whether the surge of union activity continues remains to be seen. With the advent of AI and automation, workers face greater challenges to their job security. Further, in a service-based economy, labour costs have a much bigger impact on a company’s bottom line than they did in the manufacturing-focused era of the 1930s, so companies may be compelled to strongly resist unions that demand better pay and conditions and thin the profit margin.