PITTSBURGH — Hundreds of Starbucks locations are closing this year, and at least one of them is in Pittsburgh.
Earlier in the week, Starbucks revealed plans to shut down 250 locations across North America. Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams told employees in a letter that the stores slated to close do not deliver acceptable financial results or have the correct customer experience, The Associated Press reported.
While the full list of locations is not public, Channel 11 learned through Starbucks Workers United that 20 union stores are being shuttered. That includes the cafe on Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood.
The Bloomfield cafe is the first local Starbucks to unionize back in 2022.
Starbucks says customers will start seeing signs on affected cafes this weekend, and the closures will be reflected in its app.
The company says the closures are part of its years-long plan to reverse a sales slump. The union, however, calls it a “betrayal.”
“As Starbucks continues to close stores, violate labor law, hike up our healthcare premiums, and betray its core value of belonging to appease right-wing politicians, the company is moving farther away from everything it once was. Starbucks is becoming unrecognizable under CEO Brian Niccol—and that is why labor allies, elected officials, and customers are all joining together to boycott Starbucks until they finalize a fair union contract,” a statement from Starbucks Workers United said in part.
The union says it’s sending a formal request for information to Starbucks about the planned closures and expects to engage in bargaining efforts for every impacted union store.
Several Pittsburgh-area Starbucks locations have closed in recent years. Just last month, unionized Cafes in The Village of East Side in East Liberty and on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill closed.
The Starbucks at The Mall of Robinson has also shut down, and a year ago, locations in Lawrenceville, the North Side and the South Side closed.
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