By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press Business Writer

More than 1,000 unionized Starbucks workers plan to strike at 65 U.S. stores Thursday to protest a lack of progress in labor negotiations with the company.

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The strike was intended to disrupt Starbucks’ Red Cup Day, which is typically one of the company’s busiest days of the year. Since 2018, Starbucks has given out free, reusable cups on that day to customers who buy a holiday drink.

Starbucks Workers United, the union organizing Starbucks baristas, said stores in 45 cities would be impacted, including New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, San Diego, St. Louis, Dallas, Columbus, Ohio, and Starbucks’ home city of Seattle. There is no date set for the strike to end, and more stores are prepared to join if Starbucks doesn’t reach a contract agreement with the union, organizers said.

Starbucks emphasized that the vast majority of its U.S. stores would be open and operating as usual Thursday. The coffee giant has 10,000 company-owned stores in the U.S., as well as 7,000 licensed locations in places like grocery stores and airports.

Around 550 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores are currently unionized. More have voted to unionize, but Starbucks closed 59 unionized stores in September as part of a larger reorganization campaign.

Here’s what’s behind the strike.

A stalled contract agreement

Striking workers say they’re protesting because Starbucks has yet to reach a contract agreement with the union. Starbucks workers first voted to unionize at a store in Buffalo in 2021. In December 2023, Starbucks vowed to finalize an agreement by the end of 2024. But in August of last year, the company ousted Laxman Narasimhan, the CEO who made that promise. The union said progress has stalled under Brian Niccol, the company’s current chairman and CEO.

Workers want higher pay, better hours

Workers say they’re seeking better hours and improved staffing in stores, where they say long customer wait times are routine. They say too many workers aren’t getting the required 20 hours per week they need before Starbucks’ benefits kick in. They also want higher pay, pointing out that executives like Niccol are making millions.

The union also wants the company to resolve hundreds of unfair labor practice charges filed by workers, who say the company has fired baristas in retaliation for unionizing and has failed to bargain over changes in policy that workers must enforce, like its decision earlier this year to limit restroom use to paying customers.

Starbucks stands by its wages and benefits

Starbucks says it offers the best wage and benefit package in retail, worth an average of $30 per hour. Among the company’s benefits are up to 18 weeks of paid family leave and 100% tuition coverage for a four-year college degree. In a letter to employees last week, Starbucks’ Chief Partner Officer Sara Kelly said the union walked away from the bargaining table in the spring.

Kelly said Starbucks remained ready to talk and “believes we can move quickly to a reasonable deal.” Kelly also said surveys showed that most employees like working for the company, and its barista turnover rates are half the industry average.

Limited locations with high visibility

Unionized workers have gone on strike at Starbucks before. In 2022 and 2023, workers walked off the job on Red Cup Day. Last year, a five-day strike ahead of Christmas closed 59 U.S. stores. Each time, Starbucks said the disruption to its operations was minimal. Starbucks United said the new strike is open-ended and could spread to many more unionized locations.

The number of non-union Starbucks locations dwarfs the number of unionized ones. But Todd Vachon, a union expert at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, said any strike could be highly visible and educate the public on baristas’ concerns.

Unlike manufacturers, Vachon said, retail industries depend on the connection between their employees and their customers. That makes shaming a potentially powerful weapon in the union’s arsenal, he said.

Improving sales

Starbucks’ same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, rose 1% in the July-September period. It was the first time in nearly two years that the company had posted an increase. In his first year at the company, Niccol set new hospitality standards, redesigned stores to be cozier and more welcoming, and adjusted staffing levels to better handle peak hours.

Starbucks also is trying to prioritize in-store orders over mobile ones. Last week, the company’s holiday drink rollout in the U.S. was so successful that it almost immediately sold out of its glass Bearista cup. Starbucks said demand for the cup exceeded its expectations, but it wouldn’t say if the Bearista will return before the holidays are over.

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jessica Sweet spent the federal government shutdown cutting back. To make ends meet, the Social Security claims specialist drank only one coffee a day, skipped meals, cut down on groceries and deferred paying some household bills. She racked up spending on her credit card buying gas to get to work.

FILE – A sign that reads “Closed due to federal government shutdown,” is seen outside of the National Gallery of Art on the 6th day of the government shutdown, in Washington, Oct. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

With the longest shutdown ever coming to a close, Sweet and hundreds of thousands of other federal workers who missed paychecks will soon get some relief. But many are left feeling that their livelihoods served as political pawns in the fight between recalcitrant lawmakers in Washington and are asking themselves whether the battle was worth their sacrifices.

“It’s very frustrating to go through something like this,” said Sweet, who is a union steward of AFGE Local 3343 in New York. “It shakes the foundation of trust that we all place in our agencies and in the federal government to do the right thing.”

The shutdown began on Oct. 1 after Democrats rejected a short-term funding fix and demanded that the bill include an extension of federal subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Its end emerged when eight Democratic-aligned senators agreed to a deal to fund the government with no extension of the expiring subsidies.

Federal workers deeply felt the impacts of the shutdown

The shutdown created a cascade of troubles for many Americans. Throughout the shutdown, at least 670,000 federal employees were furloughed, while about 730,000 others were working without pay, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The plight of the federal workers was among several pressure points, along with flight disruptions and cuts to food aid, that in the end ratcheted up the pressure on lawmakers to come to an agreement to fund the government.

Throughout the six-week shutdown, officials in President Donald Trump’s administration repeatedly used the federal workers as leverage to try to push Democrats to relent on their health care demands. The Republican president signaled that workers going unpaid wouldn’t get back pay. He threatened and then followed through on firings in a federal workforce already reeling from layoffs earlier this year. A court then blocked the shutdown firings, adding to the uncertainty.

The deal that is bringing an end to the shutdown will reverse the dismissals that occurred since Oct. 1, while also ensuring back pay for furloughed federal workers the Trump administration had left in doubt. The bipartisan deal provides funding to reopen the government, including for SNAP food aid and other programs.

Frustration over the shutdown and how it was brought to an end

But the whiplash of the past six weeks, coupled with the concern that the longest shutdown ever may not be the last they face, has shaken many in the workforce.

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“Stress and hunger are great tactics for traumatizing people,” Sweet said.

For Sweet, the feelings of frustration are only compounded by a feeling that she was betrayed by the Democratic-aligned senators who broke with the party on the health care subsidies.

She said that she understands that many workers were desperate for a paycheck. But she thought standing firm on the issue of the health care subsidies was worth her sacrifice.

“There are other federal workers who understood what we were holding the line for and are extremely unhappy that line was crossed and that trust was breached,” she said.

Ready to get back to work

Adam Pelletier, a National Labor Relations Board field examiner who was furloughed Oct. 1, said he is glad the compromise includes rehiring laid-off workers, but “the agreement that was reached almost feels like the Charlie Brown cartoon where Lucy holds the football and pulls it out from them.”

Pelletier, a union leader for NLRBU local 3, had financially prepared for the shutdown back in March when it became clear that a funding agreement between Democrats and Republicans likely would not be reached. He says the shutdown has made him feel “like a pawn” because federal workers had no say over their own fate.

The federal workers who spoke to The Associated Press had one common message: that they were reeling but ready to get back to work.

“This has been the worst time in my 20 years to be a federal employee,” said Elizabeth McPeak, a furloughed IRS employee in Pittsburgh who is National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 34 first vice president. She said colleagues had to beg their landlords to hold off on collecting rent payments and relied on food banks during the shutdown.

“A month without pay,” McPeak said, “is a long time to go.”

Walk through the players lounge tucked into what they call the “Zamboni end” of Aldrich Arena in Maplewood, and the memories of Hill-Murray hockey come at you like waves crashing on a windy beach.

The framed jerseys date back to the 1970s, when private schools could not yet compete in the Minnesota State High School League. They commemorate 1983, when an unbeaten Pioneers team became the first non-public state champ. They show the school’s most recent state prep title in 2020, amid the myriad moments that fans and alumni love to savor.

The 2024-25 season looked for a time like it would be another chapter in that book of triumphant memories. Instead, as coach Bill Lechner and his assistants put the finishing touches on the coming season’s roster, the abrupt end of the previous campaign is something they’re trying to forget and move past.

Last season’s Pioneers were a juggernaut, even by the lofty standards the program has set. They averaged better than six goals per game on the way to winning 22 of 25 regular-season contests, with a tie and two one-goal losses – to St. Thomas Academy and Edina – to their credit. Hill-Murray opened the playoffs with 11-1 and 10-0 wins.

Then it all came crashing down. In the section final, the Pioneers fell to neighborhood rival Stillwater in double overtime, then had to watch the Ponies march to the state title game. There, Stillwater lost to Moorhead – a team Hill-Murray had beaten to close the regular season.

Even eight months later, the painful memories are always there.

“It sticks. And probably shouldn’t in the scheme of life and all the things that go on in the world,” said Lechner, who has been the Pioneers’ head coach since 1997, after running the show at Stillwater for the five seasons before that. “It’s a bump in the road. But in this world, I couldn’t wait until Monday to get going and try and start erasing that moment.”

Over the summer, Lechner’s program got a taste of the new world of hockey development for the 16- to 20-year-old crowd.

Three players that could have returned for another season with the Pioneers headed elsewhere: defenseman Carson Scott is playing for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program in Michigan, defenseman Casper Lang headed to junior hockey in British Columbia, and high-scoring forward Riley Zupfer elected to spend the entire season with Des Moines in the USHL, after his original plan was to return to Hill-Murray for his senior season.

“It’s all trickling down,” Lechner said, referring to the change in NCAA rules a year ago that added Canadian major junior hockey as an option for players interested in college hockey. “If you look around and you talk to the Minnetonkas and Edinas, they’re plucking a couple of the top guys, and they’re getting them.”

Still, the coach likes the Pioneers’ experience in goal, with Grayson Hanggi back for his senior year after winning 19 games last season. With good size and better numbers, Hanggi is considered by many as a candidate for the Frank Brimsek Award, given to the state’s top senior goalie.

The team’s offensive experience starts with senior Chaz Lentz, who averaged better than two points per game last season and is easing into a leadership role.

“It will be different,” admitted Lentz, who cut his teeth in the Cottage Grove youth hockey system. “I’ve got to step up my game to the next level. It’s fresh guys, younger guys, and we’re the guys that they look up to.”

In Lentz, Lechner sees a versatile player who will center the Pioneers’ top line and is comfortable and productive in just about any offensive role.

“He’s got great hands, great instincts. He has got to get bigger and stronger, but they all do,” said the coach. “Anywhere you want him, he’ll do whatever you want.”

After tune-up scrimmages versus Shakopee and Cretin-Derham Hall, the puck drops for real on Nov. 25 with a visit to Eden Prairie. The Pioneers’ home opener is Nov. 29 when Class A power Hermantown visits Aldrich.

Lentz said that every game feels big when you get used to being perceived as the enemy, like Hill-Murray is everywhere they go, but games versus White Bear Lake and Edina, and the rematch versus Stillwater, are all circled on most Pioneers’ calendars.

As he works to get past the disappointment of their most recent game, Lechner savors the chance to reload and give it another run with a new group of Pioneers.

“We’re not one-and-done. It’s Hill-Murray,” he said. “If we’re not being talked about every year, I don’t have a job, to be blunt.”

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It’s almost Thanksgiving — the best holiday for those of us who love to be in the kitchen. But some of us prefer to leave it to the experts, or to augment all of our hard work with something special from a local chef.

Either way, we have you covered. Here’s a long list of local restaurants that are offering Thanksgiving takeout. Order soon, as many limit the number of meals or items they produce.

Breva

Roasted turkey roulade with chestnut and chicken-apple-sausage stuffing, green beans, cranberry, mashed potatoes, gravy and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. $45 per person. Order pumpkin pie with whipped cream. $45 per person; order by Nov. 21 for a Thanksgiving Day pickup. Complimentary 15-minute valet will be available at Hotel Ivy to pick up your orders on Thanksgiving.

Breva: 1115 Second Ave. S., Minneapolis; brevabarandgrill.com

Create Catering

Dinner kits for two or four people include smoked turkey breast with a honey-butter glaze, sage and celery stuffing, gravy, silky potato puree, chicories salad, cauliflower gratin, cranberry-pepper jelly and pumpkin tiramisu. Vegetarian options available. Diner for four-plus people is $230; dinner for two-plus people is $125. Pickup on Nov. 26.

Create Catering: 1121 NE Jackson St, Suite No. 145, Minneapolis; createcaters.com/store/event/thanksgiving-dinner-by-create/

D’Amico Hospitality

A 2025 Thanksgiving meal kit from D’Amico Hospitality. (Anna Grinets Photography for D’Amico Hospitality)

This Thanksgiving dinner box feeds six for $280 and includes Basmati rice, chickpea and quinoa and radicchio, fennel and arugula salads, mashed potatoes, taleggio mac and cheese, dressing with sourdough, sage, sausage and onions, sweet potatoes with brown butter, cranberries, rolls, gravy, pumpkin pies and a garnish kit. Choose from herb-roasted turkey breast or slow-braised turkey thighs. Curbside pickup is on Nov. 26 at the Metropolitan Ballroom & Clubroom in Golden Valley.

Order here: damicohospitality.com/thanksgiving-dinner-2025/#thanksgiving-menu-2025

FoodSmith Bistro-Pub

A take-and-heat dinner for two includes a mixed-greens salad, turkey breast with house gravy, sourdough herb and leek stuffing, mashed Yukon gold potatoes, garlic butter green beans with toasted almonds, cranberry orange relish and classic pumpkin pie. $79.99. Pickup is on Nov. 26.

FoodSmith Bistro-Pub: 973 S. Smith Ave., West St. Paul; 651-330-0896; foodsmithpub.com

Keller Grille

Meal kits serve four to six people and include brown sugar and herb-roasted turkey breast, rosemary whipped potatoes and homemade gravy, sourdough and rye stuffing, green bean and shallot confit, cranberry-ginger chutney and a sweet-potato souffle. Optional add-ons include autumn jewel salad, fresh baked rolls and pumpkin cheesecake bars. Cost is $195 without add-ons. Order by Nov. 21 with a pickup of Nov. 26.

Keller Grille at Keller Golf Course: 2116 Maplewood Drive, Maplewood; 651-766-4176; kellergrille.com/thanksgiving-family-style-takeout-2025/

Kinsley’s Smokehouse Deli

Thanksgiving meal kit for 2025 from Kinsley’s Smokehouse Deli

in The Market at Malcolm Yards. (Courtesy of Kinsley’s Smokehouse Deli)

Meal kits include pastrami or turkey, two pounds of stuffing and one quart of mustard gravy, plus your pick of two sides (mac and cheese, smoked potato salad, Brussels sprouts with bacon and onion, rye bread stuffing, pasta salad or garden salad) and one dessert (bread pudding with Knob Creek bourbon, banana pudding or smoked apple cannolis). Pre-orders available through Nov. 19. Pickup is Nov. 26. Ordering can only be done in person. Kinsley’s is inside The Market at Malcolm Yards. Meal for eight is $350 for pastrami or $280 for turkey; meal for four is $180 for pastrami or $150 for turkey.

Kinsley’s Smokehouse Deli: 501 30th Ave. S.E., Minneapolis

Mason Jar Kitchen & Bar

Mason Jar Kitchen & Bar’s 2025 Thanksgiving takeout. (Courtesy of Mason Jar)

Heat-and-serve and ready-to-serve Thanksgiving feasts with herb-roasted turkey, sage-and-rosemary stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, candied yams, buttered green beans, salad (choice of Caesar or MJK garden) and dinner rolls. Serves six generously for $189. Add-ons include extra servings of sides, strip loin with wild mushroom demi-glace, honey-glazed ham, smoked Gouda mac and cheese, house-made pies, and more. Order by 3 p.m. Nov. 25 with heat-and-serve pickup on Nov. 26 (1–6 p.m.) or ready-to-serve pickup is on Nov. 27 (10 a.m.–2 p.m.)

Mason Jar Kitchen & Bar: 1565 Cliff Road, Eagan; 651-340-7809; masonjar.kitchen/thanksgiving-feast-2025

Patisserie 46 and Rose Street Patisserie

Handcrafted pastries, tarts, breads and savory selections like Mimi’s Stuffing Mix and herbed butter rolls are available for pre-order. Pick up Nov. 25 or Nov. 26. To order, go to patisserie46.com, choose your location and click the “order now” button.

Red Cow

The Red Cow Thanksgiving meal kit for 2025. (Courtesy of Red Cow)

Heat-and-serve meal kits that feed six to eight people include roast turkey breast, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, assorted artisan rolls, green bean casserole, mac and cheese, whipped sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. All items can be purchased a la carte as well. Full meal is $289. Order by Nov. 23 with a pickup of Nov. 26 at  Red Cow Uptown, at 2626 Hennepin Ave in Minneapolis or 217 14th Ave. S.W. in Rochester.

Order at redcow.com

Rustica

Sweets and rolls, including pumpkin tart, garam masala molasses cookies, potato rolls and chai apple strudel available. Order before Nov. 17 for a Nov. 26 pickup at the Minneapolis location only.

Rustica: 3220 W. Lake St., Minneapolis; 612-822-1119; rusticabakery.com/thanksgiving

Travail

The 2025 Thanksgiving meal kit from Travail. (Courtesy of Travail)

Take-home family meal kit feeds six to eight hungry guests. Dinner includes 6- to8-pound turkey breast roulade and housemade gravy, whipped potatoes, stuffing, Brussels sprouts, green beans, Italian Eatery bread loaf and more. Cost is $349 plus taxes. Order now and pickup Nov. 26 between 2 and 6 p.m.

Travail Kitchen and Amusements: 4134 Hubbard Ave. N., Robbinsdale; 763-535-1131; travailkitchen.com/thanksgivingfamilymeal2025 

Terry John Zila Catering (Hepcat Coffee)

Chef Terry John Zila is offering an insane amount of options for your Thanksgiving meal that include soups, salads, classic roast turkey, wine-braised Italian roast beef, stuffed porchetta, lasagna Bolognese, honey brown sugar ham, turkey breast roulade or mac and cheese. There are classic and inventive sides, breads and an array of pies or other desserts. You order each element a la carte to create a full meal.  Pickup is at Hepcat Coffee in downtown St. Paul. Order by Nov. 24 for pickup on Nov. 26.

Hepcat Coffee: 370 N. Wabasha St., St. Paul; 612-237-0129; https://tinyurl.com/5n7pyvf9

Surly

The brewery describes its Thanksgiving meal kit as “a massive, no-holds-barred meal crafted to serve 4-6 hungry people.” And yes, it includes beer. You get three pounds of smoked turkey with jus, two quarts of white-cheddar mashed potatoes, one quart of turkey demi-gravy, two quarts of green-bean casserole with smoked mushroom cream and crispy fried onions, one quart of herb stuffing, a half pan of baby kale salad, a pint of Pentagram cranberries, milk buns with honey butter, pumpkin pie and a 750 ml bottle of Feastbier (weizenbock aged in bourbon barrels with vanilla). You can add on dark meat or a grazing board. Cost is $251. Order soon — they sell out every year. Pickup is Nov. 25 or Nov. 26.

Surly Brewing Co.: 520 Malcolm Ave. S.E., Minneapolis; 763-999-4040; surlybrewing.com

Yum! Kitchen & Bakery

A la carte items include apple harvest salad, acorn squash soup, stuffing, mashed potatoes, maple-whipped sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, gravy, cranberries, cakes, pumpkin bars or cheesecake, pumpkin and pecan pie. Pickup is available at all locations on Nov. 26. Click “order online” to find options.

Yum! Kitchen & Bakery: Four locations, including Woodbury and St. Paul; yumkitchen.com

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