Around 30 Starbucks employees and union allies protesting outside one of the coffee giant’s Columbus locations demanded a fair union contract from the global corporation.
During the hour-long protest outside the Starbucks at 1784 N. High St. near the University District on Sept. 28, the approximately 30 participants yelled various call-and-response chants like, “What’s outrageous? What they pay us,” and “Understaffing, lousy pay; that is how your coffee’s made.”
A few speakers addressed the crowd over a microphone with brief speeches, sharing their frustration that Starbucks refuses to settle a union contract, which they hope would ensure more stable working conditions, better staffing, and higher pay.
“We are the ones who make the stores run; we are the ones who pull the shots; we are the ones who get up every morning and show up and make the connections with our customers that make the business what it is,” Starbucks employee Ruby Walters told the crowd. “And they think we don’t deserve cost-of-living increases or people on our floor to actually make the brand what they want it to be. Shame.”
Jacob Welsh, a field organizer with Workers United and a former Starbucks employee, addresses the crowd at a Starbucks picket outside a store at 1784 N. High St. in Columbus’ University District on Sept. 28, 2025, where attendees demanded the corporation settle a fair union contract.
Starbucks Workers United represents roughly 650 stores and more than 12,000 employees, with this protest part of a national wave of pickets across 35 cities, according to a news release from the union. If the corporation were to settle a union contract with Workers United, it would apply to all unionized stores.
Sabina Aguirre, another picket attendee, has worked for Starbucks for almost a year. She said she logs an average of 35-40 hours a week, and is making “not even close” to what it would cost to support herself long-term.
“There’s no reason that we should be working 40-hour weeks and not be able to afford to live,” Aguirre told The Dispatch. “It’s just not sustainable.”
About 30 people waved signs in protest of Starbucks for not settling a fair union contact at a picket Sept. 28, 2025, outside a Columbus store at 1784 N. High St. near the University District.
Settling a union contract would cost Starbucks “less than one average days’ sales,” the union news release contends. While the average Starbucks barista’s salary is less than $15,000 a year, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol made $96 million for four months of work in 2024 — “the biggest CEO-to-worker pay gap” in the nation, the release states.
Barista Siti Pulcheon shows the back of her Starbucks Workers United T-shirt at a Sept. 28 protest of the company’s refusal to settle a fair union contract, which took place outside a Columbus store at 1784 N. High St. near the University District.
A few days ago, Starbucks announced it was closing hundreds of locations that were viewed as underperforming, in turn cutting around 900 jobs. At the time of the announcement, no Columbus-area or Ohio stores were on that list.
Though not explicitly tied to the Columbus picketing, Aguirre said it’s another way the Starbucks corporation has shown “they don’t care for their employees.”
“They view us as dispensable,” Aguirre said. “I think the store closures were a really big testament to that.”
Barista Sabina Aguirre addresses the crowd through call-and-response chants on a picket line on Sept. 28 2025, outside the Starbucks coffeehouse at 1784 N. High St. near the University District.
Aguirre emphasized that the baristas involved in this ongoing union dispute care deeply about their customers and doing their jobs well, but doing so has become more difficult amid current working conditions.
“We don’t want to go on strike,” Aguirre said. “We don’t want to have to take these actions. But if it is necessary to get that contract, we are willing to do whatever we need to.”
Reporter Emma Wozniak can be reached at ewozniak@dispatch.com or @emma_wozniak_ on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Baristas protest at Columbus Starbucks, seek fair union contract