Iowa City Starbucks strikers shut down their store; here’s why

The high temperature was just 18 degrees and breezy in Iowa City on Dec. 19.

But Abigail Scheppmann and a coworker were standing outside the closed Starbucks store for hours anyway, waving their STRIKE signs at passersby and walking around to keep warm.

“This is probably the most I’ve been outside in the cold in my life,” Scheppmann told me when I stopped by. “I’ve gotta handle it in order to be out here on strike … I’m here to prove to Starbucks that we will fight for our contract no matter what.”

Abigail Scheppmann, a barista at the Starbucks in Iowa City and an organizing committee member for her store’s Starbucks Workers United union, poses for a photo while picketing outside the store Dec. 19, 2025. (Amie Rivers/Iowa Starting Line)

For the past three years, Scheppmann has been working for the downtown Iowa City Starbucks. And for the past month, she and her coworkers have been on an unfair labor practice strike—even succeeding in shutting down the store.

“When I started at Starbucks, there was more of a willingness on the company’s part to talk to workers and take our ideas into account,” she said. “Recently, Starbucks has not been receptive to baristas’ concerns at all, especially when it comes to pay or guaranteed hours, or the amount of mobile orders we can handle at a time.”

It’s all part of a nationwide Starbucks escalating strike, which the Starbucks Workers United union began in November. Iowa City and Des Moines workers joined on Dec. 4.

Scheppmann says the company has tentatively agreed to “a lot” of a first contract, but workers have been waiting on better wages, staffing, guaranteed hours, and a resolution to hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practices they say the company has committed.

@iowastartingline

Workers at an Iowa City Starbucks joined the escalating national strike in December to urge the corporation to offer better wages and staffing policies, and address hundreds of unfair labor practice charges. Poetically, their store couldn’t function without them. Follow for more worker news in our new series Clocked In: Iowa at Work.

♬ original sound – Iowa Starting Line

She says it’s about time workers like her were treated better.

“There is this idea that service work doesn’t need a union, or service workers should intentionally be underpaid, and that’s not true,” she said. “We are all very vital to our economy, and it’s time that the businesses and bosses take that seriously.”

But she said the response from the community has been “really great.” Politicians like Josh Turek, running for US Senate, and state Rep. Adam Zabner have both stopped by, as have staffers from Zach Wahls‘ US Senate campaign.

Workers at both the Iowa City and Des Moines locations continue to picket daily, and invite the community to join them—or, at the very least, not buy Starbucks until workers get a contract.

“We’re not just fighting for Starbucks Workers United, we are fighting for all Starbucks workers, and all fast food workers,” Scheppmann said.

Share your thoughts.