Baristas Hold Niccol Hostage After Shutting 65 Stores and Hijacking Starbucks’ Biggest Traffic Day

Remember when Starbucks’ biggest crisis was whether the holiday cup looked “too secular”? Yeah, HQ would trade all of Brian Niccol’s stock options to go back to that era. Because this morning, instead of slinging lattes at ludicrous speed, the baristas turned Red Cup Day into a full-blown revolution. I’m not joking… they're literally calling it the Red Cup Rebellion. Creativity may not be their strong suit (aside from the blue hair), but the dramatic timing is incredible.

Starbucks is supposed to be knee-deep in its comeback arc right now. New CEO Brian Niccol (the man who taught every college sophomore how to scam extra steak at Chipotle) has been rolling out his playbook: speed, efficiency, more protein shakes, less corporate fluff, and hopefully fewer TikToks of baristas having meltdowns.

But today, instead of breaking sales records, over 1,000 baristas walked off the job on the biggest promo day of the year. More than 65 stores across 40 cities launched open-ended strikes, with another 550 union stores saying “try us, we dare you” if Starbucks doesn’t come back to the bargaining table.

(Source: Business Insider)

This is the third strike since Niccol took the CEO seat on September 9th. Which is hilarious because the man hasn’t even had time to memorize the parking garage code yet. Workers have been trying to finalize a union contract since December 2021, and after Starbucks promised progress by end of 2024, talks collapsed harder than the foam on a poorly steamed latte.

Starbucks says the union represents “less than 4% of partners.” The union says Starbucks is dodging negotiations and sitting on 700+ unfair labor practice cases. Who’s right? Who knows… all we know is both sides would rather die than admit fault.

Oh, and the National Labor Relations Board hasn’t been fully staffed since the beginning of Trump’s term, meaning newly unionized stores legally can’t be recognized. So even if your barista wants to rage-walkout with their coworkers… they aren’t protected. Love that for corporate governance. Some investors have quietly entered their “concerned parent” phase. Starbucks stock is down over 5% this year, and even with global comps rising 1% last quarter (shoutout to protein drinks), things aren’t looking so hot.

In October, a coalition of major shareholders (including Trillium, PIRC, and the NYC Comptroller) essentially told Starbucks: “Stop fighting your workers before you ruin the brand and the share price.”

Then Bernie Sanders (#1 hater of capitalism) and 100+ other lawmakers piled on last week, pointing at Niccol’s nearly $100 million pay package and saying: “You have the money. Stop being weird. Sign the contract.” Big yikes.

It’s pretty obvious Brian's tenure is at a massive turning point… if he somehow figures out how to maneuver this without shareholders taking too much damage… he’ll be a hero.
If his next move causes the blue-haired baristas to declare all-out war, things could get ugly fast… and his signing might go down as the corporate version of the Cleveland Browns’ Deshaun Watson contract.

And honestly, if this isn’t the textbook definition of Murphy’s Law (just when things start to look good, sh*t hits the fan) I don’t know what is. If you’re holding Starbucks, all you can do is put on a brave face and pray this all plays out without the stock turning into a ski slope.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Starbucks as mentioned in the article.