Starbucks strike expands to more than 300 US stores: Union

Strike over wages and staffing issues comes at one of the coffee chain’s busiest times of the year.

A strike at Starbucks has expanded to more than 300 of the coffee chain’s stores in the United States, with more than 5,000 workers expected to walk off the job, the workers’ union said.

The five-day strike will end later on Tuesday, and has come amid the Christmas holidays, one of the busiest times of the year for Starbucks.

Starbucks Workers United, representing employees at 525 stores nationwide, said more than 60 US stores across 12 major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle, were shut on Monday.

Talks between Starbucks and the union had hit an impasse with unresolved issues over wages, staffing and schedules, leading to the strike that began on Friday.

With a union contract, improved benefits, wages, and working conditions could be in writing and cannot be reduced without bargaining, according to the Workers United website.