New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont joined dozens of striking Starbucks union baristas at a picket line in Gowanus on Dec. 1, calling on the company to return to the bargaining table and offer a fair contract.
Union members have been on an open-ended unfair labor practice strike since Nov. 13, making it the longest ULP strike in Starbucks history. Dubbed the “Red Cup Rebellion,” the strike escalated on Black Friday, Nov. 28, when hundreds of additional union baristas from 26 stores in nearly 20 cities joined about 2,000 Starbucks workers already on strike at 95 stores in 65 cities.
The 11,000-member Starbucks Workers United is protesting the company’s failure to finalize a union contract, calling for improved staffing levels, higher take-home pay and a resolution to outstanding unfair labor practice charges related to union busting. Workers United has filed more than 1,000 ULPs, including more than 125 since January 2025. More than 700 charges remain unresolved, including national complaints alleging bad-faith bargaining and unilateral policy changes, as well as cases involving retaliatory firings and discipline.
Mamdani told the crowd he would continue to stand with workers on picket lines across the five boroughs after taking office on Jan. 1, 2026.
“I’ve said this to many of the unions that are here today, many of the rank and file, which is that we want to build an administration that is characterized by being there for workers every single step of the way, and sometimes in the fight for decency and dignity that workers are waging, their voices are drowned out,” Mamdani said. He added that, as mayor, he would use the office’s platform to address labor violations, pointing to a city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection investigation that found Starbucks had violated the Fair Workweek Law.
Earlier in the day, outgoing Mayor Eric Adams and the DCWP announced a $38.9 million settlement with Starbucks over the company’s failure to provide stable schedules to workers at more than 300 locations since 2021, among other violations. More than 15,000 hourly Starbucks workers are eligible for restitution.
“We celebrate what DCWP was able to accomplish in the largest ever settlement that has been won in the city,” Mamdani said. “We will continue to commit funding, both of a fiscal kind and also of our own sustained commitment in terms of the political will necessary to ensure that we hold these kinds of corporations [accountable].”
Mamdani was more evasive when asked whether his campaign pledge to make the city more affordable conflicted with a possible 16% pay raise for the mayor, City Council members, the public advocate and the city comptroller — legislation he would be required to sign and which would raise the mayor’s salary from $258,000 to $300,000.
“I’m not worried about the hypotheticals at this time,” Mamdani said. “What I can tell you is that every single day from now until I become the mayor, and then after that, is going to be focused on how we can improve the working conditions for workers across the city and the conditions for every person who calls the city [home].”
Mamdani also denied knowing Irfan Verjee, CEO of the renewable energy firm Shomax Energy and a member of the business advisory council for OneNYC, a super PAC supporting Mamdani’s mayoral run.
The New York Post reported that Verjee allegedly offered Frank Garcia, chairman of the New York State Coalition of Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, a role on Mamdani’s transition team if he raised $1 million for OneNYC.
“I do not know this man,” Mamdani said, adding that the era of pay-to-play politics was over. “We are an administration that will staff up on the basis of excellence, on the basis of outcomes, not on the basis of relationships.”
Sanders, who earlier joined several congressional colleagues in a letter urging Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol to negotiate a fair contract, told the crowd he shared Mamdani’s commitment to building an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthiest Americans.
“We are living in an economy where the people on top have never, ever had it so good,” Sanders said. “You have one man owning more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households. The CEOs made unbelievable salaries, 60% of our people in Vermont, in New York City, all over this country are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to pay the rent, struggling to pay for health care, struggling to put food on the table.”
Sanders, who with Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and other progressive Democrats formed an alliance known as the “Fight Club” to challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and back progressive candidates, praised Mamdani’s grassroots-driven campaign as unprecedented.
Mamdani’s campaign, Sanders said, has inspired candidates nationwide to oppose tax breaks for billionaires and push for a more just economy, livable wages and universal health care.
“[Mamdani] won because he put together 10s and 10s of 1000s of volunteers who knocked on doors. He won because he had the guts to talk about the oligarchs,” Sanders said. “What we are seeing in America right now, in congressional races, Senate races, you’re seeing more and more candidates standing up exactly the same way that Zohran did.”
