By DEE-ANN DURBIN, AP Business Writer

Starbucks’ union members have voted to strike at the company’s U.S. stores next week unless it finalizes a contract agreement, the union said Wednesday.

The strike would begin on Nov. 13, which is the day Starbucks plans to distribute free, reusable red cups. Red Cup Day, a Starbucks tradition since 2018, is typically one of the company’s busiest days of the year.

Starbucks Workers United, the union organizing baristas, didn’t say how many stores would be impacted. But it said workers in at least 25 cities planned to strike and more locations could be added if the union doesn’t see “substantial progress” toward finalizing a contract.

Around 550 of Starbucks’ 10,000 company-operated U.S. stores are currently unionized. More stores have voted to unionize since 2021, but Starbucks closed 59 unionized stores in September as part of a larger restructuring.

The union and the company have yet to agree to a labor contract. In December 2023, Starbucks vowed to finalize an agreement by the end of 2024. But the company ousted Laxman Narasimhan, the CEO who made that promise, last fall. The union said progress has stalled under Brian Niccol, the company’s new chairman and CEO.

Starbucks said Wednesday that it’s disappointed the union plans to strike instead of returning to the bargaining table.

“Any agreement needs to reflect the reality that Starbucks already offers the best job in retail, including more than $30 an hour on average in pay and benefits for hourly partners,” Starbucks spokeswoman Jaci Anderson said Wednesday.

In a letter to Starbucks employees released Wednesday, Starbucks’ Chief Partner Officer Sara Kelly said the union has proposed a 65% pay increase immediately and a 77% increase over three years, with additional payments for things like weekends or days when Starbucks runs promotions. Kelly also said some proposals would significantly alter Starbucks’ operations, such as giving workers the ability to shut down mobile ordering if the store is busy.

“These aren’t serious, evidence-based proposals,” Kelly said.

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But unionized baristas said they don’t always get the 20 hours per week they need to be eligible for Starbucks’ benefits. Unionized workers also point to Starbucks’ generous pay package for Niccol, which saw him make $95.8 million in 2024. The package included $75 million in equity to make up for what he forfeited by his abrupt departure from Chipotle, his previous employer.

“Our fight is about actually making Starbucks jobs the best jobs in retail. Right now, it’s only the best job in retail for Brian Niccol,” said Jasmine Leli, a three-year Starbucks barista and strike captain from Buffalo, New York. Leli said starting pay for baristas in most states is $15.25 per hour.

The strike would echo previous labor actions against the company. In 2023, thousands of Starbucks workers at more than 200 stores walked off the job on Red Cup Day. Last year, a five-day strike ahead of Christmas closed 59 U.S. stores.

In her letter, Kelly emphasized that most company-owned stores as well as 7,000 licensed locations in places like airports will remain open if there is a strike.

The Gophers football program picked up a commitment from former Ohio State pledge Aaron Thomas on Wednesday.

The 6-foot-7, 300-pound offensive tackle from Phoenix left the Buckeyes class on Monday, but is staying in the Big Ten.

“Riding my own wave,” Thomas wrote on X. “@GopherFootball is home.”

The three-star recruit via 247Sports composite rankings had nearly 30 scholarship offer from schools across the country.

Thomas is the 28th overall commitment for the U’s 2026 class and its sixth-highest-rated recruit.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered officials on Wednesday to submit proposals for a possible resumption of nuclear tests in response to President Donald Trump’s statements last week that appeared to suggest the U.S. will restart its own atomic tests.

Speaking at a meeting with his Security Council, Putin reaffirmed his earlier statement that Moscow will only restart nuclear tests if the U.S. does so first. But he directed the defense and foreign ministries and other government agencies to analyze Washington’s intentions and work out proposals for resuming nuclear weapons tests.

On Oct. 30, Trump appeared to signal that the U.S. will resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades, saying it would be on an “equal basis” with Russia and China.

But U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that new tests of the U.S. nuclear weapons system ordered by Trump will not include nuclear explosions.

Trump made the announcement on social media while in South Korea, days after Putin announced successful tests of the prospective nuclear-powered and nuclear capable cruise missile and underwater drone. Putin’s praise for the new weapons that he claimed can’t be intercepted appears to be another message to Trump that Russia is standing firm in its maximalist demands on settling the conflict in Ukraine.

The U.S. military also has regularly tested nuclear-capable weapons, but it has not detonated atomic weapons since 1992. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which the U.S. signed but did not ratify, has been observed since its adoption by all countries possessing nuclear weapons, North Korea being the only exception.

Putin in 2023 signed a bill revoking Russia’s ratification of a global nuclear test ban, which Moscow said was needed to put it on par with the U.S. The global test ban was signed by President Bill Clinton but never ratified by the U.S. Senate.

During Wednesday’s Security Council meeting, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov reported to Putin about U.S. efforts to modernize its atomic arsenals, arguing that along with a possible resumption of nuclear tests by Washington they “significantly increase the level of military threats to Russia.”

Belousov suggested that Moscow immediately start preparations for nuclear tests on the Arctic Novaya Zemlya archipelago. He added that the site, where the Soviet Union last tested a nuclear weapon in 1990, was ready for quickly resuming the explosions.

Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the military’s General Staff, also vouched for quickly starting preparations for tests.

“If we don’t take appropriate measures now, we will miss the time and opportunity to respond promptly to the U.S. actions, as it takes from several months to several years to prepare for nuclear tests, depending on their type,” Gerasimov said.

After hearing from military leaders and other top officials, who noted the conflicting signals from Washington on whether the U.S. will restart nuclear explosions, Putin ordered government agencies to “gather additional information on the issue, analyze it within the framework of the Security Council and submit coordinated proposals on the possible start of work on preparations for nuclear weapons tests.”

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized that Putin didn’t order a start to preparations for nuclear tests and for now only told officials to analyze whether it’s necessary to begin such work. He said in remarks carried by the state Tass news agency that Moscow needs to fully understand U.S. intentions before making further decisions.

Later, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of the Security Council chaired by Putin, said the Russians have no choice but to treat Trump’s comments seriously.

“No one knows what Trump meant about ‘nuclear testing’ (he probably doesn’t himself),” Medvedev posted on X. “But he’s the president of the United States. And the consequences of such words are inescapable: Russia will be forced to assess the expediency of conducting full-fledged nuclear tests itself.”

By LINLEY SANDERS and JOSH BOAK

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most California voters didn’t like redrawing their congressional districts to favor Democrats. But many may have felt Republicans left them with no alternative.

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The AP Voter Poll, an expansive survey of more than 4,000 voters in California, captured the mixed emotions of an electorate that chose to adopt President Donald Trump’s own strategy of rewriting the rules by redistricting outside of Census years. Most voters in favor of the proposition hoped to counter his efforts to preserve Republican control of the House in next year’s midterm elections – even if they thought redistricting should ideally happen another way.

The ballot measure’s success, as well as voters’ apparent hesitations, demonstrates how many people appear to see the current redistricting fight as a political necessity, even if they don’t agree with it in principle. The findings suggest that voters see this as a tense and high stakes moment for the country, where compromises may be required.

California voters said party control of Congress was highly important

About 9 in 10 California voters said that, generally speaking, each state’s congressional district lines should be drawn by a non-partisan commission. But a majority nevertheless backed Proposition 50 to replace the existing districts with new maps crafted to send more California Democrats to the House of Representatives.

Roughly 7 in 10 California voters said party control of Congress was “very important” to them, and those voters overwhelmingly supported the amendment to the state’s constitution backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has emerged as one of Trump’s leading antagonists.

Newsom said ahead of the vote that democracy itself was at risk.

“Prop 50 is not about drawing lines on a map,” Newsom told a crowd. “It is about holding the line to what makes us who we are.”

The ballot measure was a response to Trump’s efforts earlier this year to tilt more congressional districts toward the GOP. Voter discontent with the status quo was apparent. About half of California voters said they are angry about the country’s direction, and a similar share pointed to the economy as the most important issue facing the state. Many voters have been left frustrated as Trump’s pledge to vanquish inflation has gone unfulfilled, while his import taxes have created a sense of confusion and chaos among businesses and the public.

The president has successfully pushed Texas, North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri to craft new congressional districts, with Trump placing pressure on additional states in an attempt to swing midterm races that have traditionally favored the party out of the White House.

“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED,” Trump wrote.

Proposition 50’s “Yes” voters hoped to counter Republicans in other states

Two-thirds of California voters said they were opposed to states redrawing their congressional district lines in response to how other states have drawn their lines. But the vast majority of the voters who supported the ballot measure said it was necessary to counter the changes made by Republicans in other states.

California now has the chance to do that by recrafting its 52 House seats in ways that could add five Democrats to Congress in next year’s elections. Democrats and voters who lean toward the Democrats — who make up a majority of voters in the state — overwhelmingly voted in support of the ballot measure.

Many acknowledged the process so far has been unjust. About half of California voters said neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are handling the redrawing of congressional district lines fairly.

But knowing the choices made by other state legislatures, enough California voters decided they had the right reason – even if it felt like the wrong thing.

The 2025 AP Voter Poll, conducted by SSRS from Oct. 22 – Nov. 4, includes representative samples of registered voters in California (4,490), New Jersey (4,244), New York City (4,304) and Virginia (4,215). The AP Voter Poll combines data collected from validated registered voters online and by telephone, with data collected in-person from election day voters at approximately 30 precincts per state or city, excluding California. Respondents can complete the poll in English or Spanish. The overall margin of sampling error for voters, accounting for design effect, is plus or minus 2.0 percentage points in California, 2.1 percentage points in New Jersey, 2.2 percentage points in New York City, and 2.1 percentage points in Virginia.