Several Long Island Starbucks workers participate in nationwide 5-day strike

Several Starbucks workers on Long Island joined a nationwide five-day strike by employees of the company ahead of Christmas to bring attention to union contract negotiations with the coffee conglomerate.

About a dozen pickets marched and chanted outside a Garden City store Sunday afternoon to demand better pay, which the Seattle-based company has said averages about $18 an hour. Some held signs that read “No contract. No coffee." 

Sarah Kohler, shift supervisor at the Garden City location, which was closed, knows of many Starbucks employees across the country who work a minimum of 40 hours a week or try to get overtime “just to be able to live safely.”

“It can be a struggle for some partners here to just make their rent and also take care of like laundry cost, groceries, car payments” and other "necessity bills that need to be paid.”

The Long Island protest joins a growing nationwide effort that has touched off in places such as Denver, Los Angeles, and Chicago, according to Starbucks Workers United — a labor union organizing workers at the company.

Across the country, 535 company-owned stores have voted for the union — a small fraction of the roughly 10,000 Starbucks-owned stores. As of Friday, strikes have led to the shutdown of 10 or more locations.

"We are aware of disruption at a small handful of stores, but the overwhelming majority of our U.S. stores remain open and serving customers as normal," Starbucks said in a statement.

Part of the issue is a labor agreement which should have been reached by the end of the year, the union says. 

The union said the Seattle-based company presented an economic proposal that included no current wage increases and a 1.5% bump in future pay for unionized baristas.

Starbucks said the union desires the minimum wage for hourly staff to jump by 64% right away and 77% during a three-year contract.

Starbucks contends that the union left the bargaining table too early.

“We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements,” Starbucks said in a statement. “We need the union to return to the table.”

The timing of the dispute comes as Starbucks deals with lower sales and fewer customers.

Laxman Narasimhan, the company's former CEO who said he would work toward a labor agreement, was ousted this year.

His replacement, Brian Niccol, helped stop unionization efforts at Chipotle as its CEO, though he told the union in a letter that he would work constructively with it. 

Liv Ryan, shift supervisor at a Starbucks store in Lynbrook who participated in the Garden City protest Sunday, said she will hold out on hope for better wages “until the end of time.”

“I think we will get better wages,” she said. “If not this contract, the next contract.”

With James Carbone and AP