Workers at Fairfax County’s first unionized Starbucks are officially on strike as part of a nationwide campaign to secure a contract from the coffee chain.
The Starbucks at 3046 Gatehouse Plaza in Merrifield was one of 26 stores around the U.S. to join the picket line today (Thursday), bringing the total number of participants in the nearly month-long strike up to approximately 3,000 baristas at over 145 cafes in more than 105 cities, Starbucks Workers United says.
Standing near an entrance into Gatehouse Plaza off of Gatehouse Road, workers in Merrifield wielded signs urging customers not to cross their picket line and declaring “no contract, no coffee.” That was also one of a few chants that cropped up, along with “workers united will never be defeated” and “prices high, wages low, Brian Niccol has got to go” in reference to the current Starbucks CEO.
The community’s initial response to the strike has been “very positive,” with the store seeing noticeably less traffic than it normally does on a Thursday, Merrifield organizer Rem Bonnasaint told FFXnow this morning.
“We’re typically extremely busy on Thursdays. Our line would be to the road on a Thursday, and as you can see, it’s empty,” they said. “We’ve had a lot of support in the form of people stopping and talking to us. We have a lot of customers who are very, very supportive of us. Every single time that you see someone on the picket line here … we have tens of allies who are not going to cross the line and buy coffee during this time.”
Starbucks Workers United launched an open-ended strike on Nov. 13 to protest alleged labor law violations and call for a multi-year union contract with improved wages and working conditions. Timed to disrupt Red Cup Day, when Starbucks gives out free, reusable cups to customers who buy a holiday drink, the initial strike encompassed more than 1,000 workers at 65 stores in 45 cities.
The union has been seeking a contract for years after organizing its first store in Buffalo, New York in 2021. According to the Associated Press, about 550 Starbucks-owned stores have now unionized, including three in Fairfax County.
The Gatehouse Plaza location unionized in April 2022 and was followed by stores at the Old Keene Mill Shopping Center (8408A Old Keene Mill Road) in Springfield in April 2024 and at Lee Plaza (11725 Route 29) in Fairfax on April 22, 2025, National Labor Relations Board records show.
Though Starbucks leaders had previously pledged to finalize an agreement by the end of 2024, the union says negotiations have stalled for the past six months under Niccol, who took over as CEO in September of last year.
Though not all stores have a picket line, the union has been encouraging customers to not visit any Starbucks locations until the company agrees to meet its demands, which include better pay, increased hours for workers to address understaffing, and resolutions for hundreds of unfair labor charges. The NLRB currently has 673 open cases involving Starbucks.
At least some cases were resolved this week when Starbucks agreed to pay $35 million to settle claims from more than 15,000 workers in New York City, including complaints about unpredictable schedules and arbitrarily cut hours.
According to Bonnasaint, the Gatehouse Plaza store has filed charges, but the details haven’t been made public yet, because they’re still under review.
A shift supervisor who has been working at Starbucks for eight years, Bonnasaint first tried to organize the store on Huntsman Blvd in Springfield in 2021, in part in response to policies implemented during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. While that campaign was unsuccessful, they later moved to the Gatehouse Plaza location and joined its already-established organizing committee.
On top of keeping stores open during the pandemic without providing proper masks to employees, Starbucks has placed an increased emphasis on speed at the expense of the quality of its coffee, Bonnasaint says, noting that they and other employees have also experienced workplace injuries, such as burns and concussions.
While the starting wage of around $15 exceeds Virginia’s minimum wage, it’s not enough to afford an apartment in Northern Virginia, and employees on average work only 19 hours a week — below the level needed to qualify for benefits, they said.
“The craft isn’t there, the wages aren’t there, the safety isn’t there,” Bonnasaint said. “It’s slowly deteriorated over the years, and we’ve gone through a series of CEOs, and our latest CEO is just making things worse and worse.”
Starbucks suggested in a statement that the strike has been waning in impact, claiming that only 55 stores have been affected — fewer than on Red Cup Day. According to spokesperson Jaci Anderson:
“As we’ve said, 99% of our 17,000 U.S. locations remain open and welcoming customers — including many the union publicly stated would strike but never closed or have since reopened. Regardless of the union’s plans, we do not anticipate any meaningful disruption. When the union is ready to return to the bargaining table, we’re ready to talk. The facts are clear, Starbucks offers the best job in retail, with pay and benefits averaging $30 per hour for hourly partners. People choose to work here and stay here—our turnover is less than half the industry average, and we receive more than a million job applications every year.”
The company says it has invested over $500 million to boost staffing, training and support, stating that employees work at least 20 hours a week on average and average $30 per hour in pay and benefits.
A representative for Starbucks Workers United called the company’s comments on the strike’s impact inaccurate.
“Starbucks may be referring to stores that are closed down, but they are not accounting for those that are on strike,” the representative said, adding that the company has leaned on managers or employees from other locations to keep striking stores open.
The Gatehouse Plaza store remained open with some employees working despite the picket. However, more striking workers are expected to show up in the coming days, and the union is confident that “scabbing” won’t cause long-term harm, Bonnasaint says.
As workers picketed in Merrifield, some passersby expressed support with car honks or waves. The group also received an early morning visit from the president of the AFL-CIO, the federation of unions that includes the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), where Starbucks Workers United is organized.
“America’s unions stand shoulder to shoulder with Starbucks workers today,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said. “We urge Brian Niccol and Starbucks corporate executives to finally do right by the workers who drive the company’s profit and negotiate a long-overdue fair contract.”
Also on hand was former Alexandria City Council member Mo Seifeldein, who is challenging Rep. Don Beyer for Virginia’s 8th Congressional District seat. Seifeldein said he wanted to appear at the picket to show solidarity, pointing to his “proven record” of supporting union workers as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Labor who recently resigned in protest of the Trump administration’s treatment of federal workers and immigrants.
“I’m here to stand with them in solidarity,” he said. “They have the right to be here. They’re not the problem. It is these multi-billion dollar companies with record profits and the CEO making nearly $100 million a year and will not give these people a living wage.”
