Striking Starbucks workers urge customers to delete coffee chain's app

Source: The Guardian

Unionized baristas continue to fight for a fair contract and ask public for solidarity as strike stretches into third month

Michael Sainato
Wed 4 Feb 2026 06.00 EST

Striking Starbucks baristas are calling on customers of the world’s largest coffee chain to delete its popular mobile app in solidarity with their demands for a first union contract.

Starbucks Workers United, which has been coordinating a strike for almost three months, is vowing to press ahead.

“We baristas are still fighting for a fair contract, and this fight is active and ongoing,” said KC Ihekwaba, a barista at Starbucks in Lafayette, Colorado, on a solidarity union call earlier this week. “Our fire for change is still burning. Our spirits still strong.

“What we’re asking for has not changed. We’re demanding livable wages, stable and predictable hours, and an end to union busting. Starbucks still has not delivered on any of that.”


Starbucks Workers United members and supporters picket outside a Starbucks store in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on 13 November 2025. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/feb/04/starbucks-strike-workers-urge-customers-delete-app