Garden City Starbucks Workers Join 5-Day National Strike

GARDEN CITY, NY — In the final days before Christmas, some Starbucks workers on Long Island joined their colleagues across the country in a five-day strike. Several Garden City Starbucksemployees took to the picket line on Sunday, Newsday reported.

"The few disruptions we have experienced this week have had no significant impact to our store operations. Only a small handful of our U.S. stores have been impacted," Starbucks spokesperson Phil Gee said. "We respect our partners' right to engage in lawful strike activity, and we appreciate the thousands of partners across the country who are continuing to support each other and deliver the Starbucks experience for our customers."

Patch attempted to get a comment from the union, Starbucks Workers United.

Regarding negotiations with the union, Gee said: "Workers United delegates prematurely ended our bargaining session this week. It is disappointing they didn’t return to the table given the progress we’ve made to date. Since April, we’ve held more than nine bargaining sessions over 20 days."

The Seattle-based company offers, on average, over $18 an hour to employees. The Starbucks spokesperson claims the Workers United wage increase proposals are "not sustainable."