The Carbondale Starbucks is now open and members of the staff are returning to work after their strike ended on Dec. 26.

The store joined a national strike on Dec. 4 for fair pay, fair hours and balanced staffing. Carbondale is home to one of the only unionized Starbucks stores in southern Illinois, the only other one being located in O’Fallon. 

Since November of 2025, Starbucks union workers have been striking against their company. Union stores across the country in over 105 cities have joined the picket line since Nov. 13, when the strike first began. The company has come under fire many times for allegedly making the lives of workers more difficult.

One such instance of this was settled in New York City, where Starbucks agreed to pay out over $38 million because the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection found repeated and frequent violations of the Fair Workweek Law since 2021, which guaranteed workers the right to consistent scheduling in New York City. 

While Carbondale is certainly not New York City, the issues faced there remain the same for workers across the country. 

This strike comes after Starbucks withdrew from contract negotiations with the union after six months without compromise over pay, hours and understaffing issues. 

As the strike has dragged on into the new year with no sign of resolution, many unionized Starbucks workers have been faced with a difficult choice between their livelihoods and their determination for fairer treatment. 

While some workers across the country have decided to go back to work for Starbucks, other workers have resorted to second jobs. 

Sophie O’Rourke, a worker at the Carbondale location, is a mother of two young children who said she has lost the ability to reliably transport herself from her home to work. She was looking for a second job to support her family, but then her van broke down. She has had to rely on coworkers and family to get through this.

“The strike has been crazy hard on everyone,” O’Rourke said. “But there’s a different kind of panic when you can’t pay your rent for two months because of something like this.”

The workers’ hope for a renewed contract lies now on the national front, where the strike continues.

“It’s not that we just don’t want to work,” she said. “We all love our jobs, we want to work, we need to work. But we also need to be paid fairly.”

Staff Reporter Orion Wolf can be reached at [email protected] or orionwolf6 on Instagram

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