“The Road Back to the Bargaining Table”: Starbucks Stock (NASDAQ:SBUX) Notches Down as the Union Tries to Restart Talks

Coffee giant Starbucks SBUX -1.03% ▼ has long had a key labor problem. Several of its stores are union shops now, and that is raising an unexpected fork in the operational flow. That fork is proving tough to resolve, though thankfully for Starbucks, the union presence is comparatively small, just 600 out of around 10,000 stores are union. But investors are a little concerned regardless, and sent Starbucks shares down fractionally in Friday afternoon’s trading.

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Jasmine Leli, barista with Starbucks Workers United, noted that the union recently extended a new contract offer to Starbucks management, and is “…in conversation with the company about the road back to the bargaining table.” The latest proposal from Workers United has three key elements: $17 an hour minimum wage, 4% annual raises, and a minimum of three staff members scheduled whenever a shop is open.

It is unclear if Starbucks will take this offer or not. Previously, it accused the union of making demands that were financially unsustainable, though noted that it was ready to continue contract talks whenever the union was ready to come back. Starbucks has gone on record several times in the past declaring that it believes it offers the best job in retail, so the impact of the union’s latest proposal may not be much.

A Starbucks Driver in Need

Meanwhile, a Starbucks delivery turned into a call for help in one case. Brittany Smith regularly turns to DoorDash DASH -0.24% ▼ for food deliveries, and drinks as well, including Starbucks. This time around, an elderly man named Richard was the driver, and his efforts to complete the delivery proved difficult, with video capturing him stumbling on the path from his car to the door.

Richard, as it turns out, was picking up extra hours after his wife had lost her job—and through no fault of her own, either—and money was getting short. Smith found out where the man lived, and headed out to give him a $200 tip. Richard proved grateful, but it turned out the $200 tip would only go so far. Thus, Smith organized a fundraiser via GoFundMe to help get Richard and his wife the cash they needed to get over the hump.

Is Starbucks Stock a Good Buy?

Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on SBUX stock based on 14 Buys, 10 Holds, and two Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 2.11% rally in its share price over the past year, the average SBUX price target of $101 per share implies 1.23% upside potential.

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