As contract negotiations with the company stall, unionized Starbucks workers at dozens of stores are preparing for a potential strike. Workers are now holding practice pickets and signing customers up to boycott the coffee giant in the event of a walkout.

Unionized Starbucks workers are electing strike captains and getting customers to pledge they won’t cross picket lines. They’re amassing in front of stores with picket signs, borrowing a slogan that UPS Teamsters used during their 2023 contract campaign: “Just Practicing for a Just Contract.”

Thirty-eight stores held practice pickets in early October, and starting October 25, eighty more stores plan to hold pickets and sign up customers to a “No Contract, No Coffee” pledge, promising not to patronize any Starbucks in case of a strike.

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