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Starbucks Workers United escalates strike during busy holiday season

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Starbucks Workers United escalates strike during busy holiday season


One week into what baristas have threatened to make the “largest, longest” strike in Starbucks’ history, the Workers United union said it is adding more than two dozen new cities and stores to its strike count. 

The union said Thursday it will now be striking at 95 stores in 65 cities, with some 2,000 baristas now engaged in the action. On Wednesday, baristas and allies also picketed and held a rally outside of the company’s distribution center in York, Pa. Starbucks said there were no disruptions to its operations in York.

Workers United said the majority of stores where strikes were held had to close down on the first day of the strike due to staffing issues, and the lack of workers impacted some 50 locations in the days to follow. Starbucks said stores that had issues were often able to reopen quickly and that less than 1% of its locations are experiencing disruption from the strike.

The strike has so far not appeared to dent foot traffic and sales, according to the company and data from Placer.ai. The location intelligence tracking firm’s data show foot traffic on Red Cup Day, when the strike was launched, was up 44.5% compared to the daily average between Jan. 1 and Nov. 14 this year.

In a memo to workers last week, CEO Brian Niccol touted the success of the holiday launch so far.

“Together, we set new records. Last Thursday’s Holiday launch was our biggest sales day ever in North America. Then yesterday, we had our strongest Reusable Red Cup day in company history,” the memo sent Friday said. 

Starbucks workers walk a picket line as they go on strike outside a Starbucks store on Nov. 13, 2025 in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

The union began organizing at Starbucks in 2021 and says it now represents more than 11,000 workers across more than 550 stores. This week, it said five non-union stores filed for union elections, including locations in the Baltimore, Md. area, Harrisonburg, Va., and Little Rock, Ark. The company last week told CNBC that the union only represents 9,500 workers.

Workers United is seeking new proposals that address its top issues to finalize a contract. Those include improved hours, higher wages and the resolution of hundreds of unfair labor practice charges levied against Starbucks. The two parties have not been in active negotiations to reach a contract after talks between them fell apart late last year. The strikes have not changed that fact so far.

Starbucks and the union entered into mediation in February, and hundreds of barista delegates voted down the economic package Starbucks proposed in April. Both sides have pointed blame at the other for failure to reach a bargaining agreement, and say they’re ready to negotiate.

The strike has threatened to hurt business during Starbucks’ busy holiday season, which typically provides a sales boost and will be key to the chain’s plan to turn around performance in the U.S. under Niccol. Starbucks broke a nearly two-year streak of same-store sales declines in its most recently reported quarter. Past strikes have impacted less than 1% of its stores, the company said.

Starbucks maintains it will be ready to serve customers across its stores this holiday season.

“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,” Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson said in a statement regarding the strike escalation.

“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,” Anderson said. “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.”



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Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex, Nifty Hit Record Highs; Bank Nifty Climbs 60,000 For The First Time

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Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex, Nifty Hit Record Highs; Bank Nifty Climbs 60,000 For The First Time


Stock Market News Live Updates: Indian equity benchmarks opened with a strong gap-up on Monday, December 1, touching fresh record highs, buoyed by a sharp acceleration in Q2FY26 GDP growth to a six-quarter peak of 8.2%. Positive cues from Asian markets further lifted investor sentiment.

The BSE Sensex was trading at 85,994, up 288 points or 0.34%, after touching an all-time high of 86,159 in early deals. The Nifty 50 stood at 26,290, higher by 87 points or 0.33%, after scaling a record intraday high of 26,325.8.

Broader markets also saw gains, with the Midcap index rising 0.27% and the Smallcap index advancing 0.52%.

On the sectoral front, the Nifty Bank hit a historic milestone by crossing the 60,000 mark for the first time, gaining 0.4% to touch a fresh peak of 60,114.05.

Meanwhile, the Metal and PSU Bank indices climbed 0.8% each in early trade.

Global cues

Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Monday as traders assessed fresh Chinese manufacturing data and increasingly priced in the likelihood of a US Federal Reserve rate cut later this month.

According to the CME FedWatch Tool, markets are now assigning an 87.4 per cent probability to a rate cut at the Fed’s December 10 meeting.

China’s factory activity unexpectedly slipped back into contraction in November, with the RatingDog China General Manufacturing PMI by S&P Global easing to 49.9, below expectations of 50.5, as weak domestic demand persisted.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.6 per cent, while the broader Topix declined 0.86 per cent. In South Korea, the Kospi dropped 0.30 per cent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.31 per cent.

US stock futures were steady in early Asian trade after a positive week on Wall Street. On Friday, in a shortened post-Thanksgiving session, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.65 per cent to 23,365.69, its fifth consecutive day of gains.

The S&P 500 rose 0.54 per cent to 6,849.09, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 289.30 points, or 0.61 per cent, to close at 47,716.42.



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South Korea: Online retail giant Coupang hit by massive data leak

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South Korea: Online retail giant Coupang hit by massive data leak


Osmond ChiaBusiness reporter

Getty Images Coupang logo on mobile phone screen against a white backgroundGetty Images

Coupang is often described as South Korea’s equivalent of Amazon.com

South Korea’s largest online retailer, Coupang, has apologised for a massive data breach potentially involving nearly 34 million local customer accounts.

The country’s internet authority said that it is investigating the breach and that details from the millions of accounts have likely been exposed.

Coupang is often described as South Korea’s equivalent of Amazon.com. The breach marks the latest in a series of data leaks at major firms in the country, including its telecommunications giant, SK Telecom.

Coupang told the BBC it became aware of the unauthorised access of personal data of about 4,500 customer accounts on 18 November and immediately reported it to the authorities.

But later checks found that some 33.7 million customer accounts – all in South Korea – were likely exposed, said Coupang, adding that the breach is believed to have begun as early as June through a server based overseas.

The exposed data is limited to name, email address, phone number, shipping address and some order histories, Coupang said.

No credit card information or login credentials were leaked. Those details remain securely protected and no action is required from Coupang users at this point, the firm added.

The number of accounts affected by the incident represents more than half of South Korea’s roughly-52 million population.

Coupang, which is founded in South Korea and headquartered in the US, said recently that it had nearly 25 million active users.

Coupang apologised to its customers and warned them to stay alert to scams impersonating the company.

The firm did not give details on who is behind the breach.

South Korean media outlets reported on Sunday that a former Coupang employee from China was suspected of being behind the breach.

The authorities are assessing the scale of the breach as well as whether Coupang had broken any data protection safety rules, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT said in a statement.

“As the breach involves the contact details and addresses of a large number of citizens, the Commission plans to conduct a swift investigation and impose strict sanctions if it finds a violation of the duty to implement safety measures under the Protection Act.”

The incident marks the latest in a series of breaches affecting major South Korean companies this year, despite the country’s reputation for stringent data privacy rules.

SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile operator, was fined nearly $100m (£76m) over a data breach involving more than 20 million subscribers.

In September, Lotte Cards also said the data of nearly three million customers was leaked after a cyber-attack on the credit card firm.



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Agency workers covering for Birmingham bin strikers to join picket lines

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Agency workers covering for Birmingham bin strikers to join picket lines



Agency workers hired to cover Birmingham bin strikers will join them on picket lines on Monday, a union has said.

A rally will be held by Unite The Union at Smithfield Depot on Pershore Street, Birmingham, on Monday morning to mark the first day of strike action by agency refuse workers.

Unite said the Job & Talent agency workers had voted in favour of strike action “over bullying, harassment and the threat of blacklisting at the council’s refuse department two weeks ago”.

The union said the number of agency workers who will join the strike action is “growing daily”.

Strikes by directly-employed bin workers, which have been running since January, could continue beyond May’s local elections.

The directly-employed bin workers voted in favour of extending their industrial action mandate earlier this month.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Birmingham council will only resolve this dispute when it stops the appalling treatment of its workforce.

“Agency workers have now joined with directly-employed staff to stand up against the massive injustices done to them.

“Instead of wasting millions more of council taxpayers’ money fighting a dispute it could settle justly for a fraction of the cost, the council needs to return to talks with Unite and put forward a fair deal for all bin workers.

“Strikes will not end until it does.”



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