As the holiday season wraps up, so will Starbucks’ holiday drinks menu — one of the most popular times of the year for the coffee giant.

With a new year comes the continued fight for some baristas in Queens who are demanding better working conditions.

While everybody in his house is asleep, Jules Fuentes heads out the door.

Fuentes, a Starbucks barista from Queens, was on his way to work the early shift. The 30-year-old moved back in with his mother after losing his full-time job as an office mailroom clerk during the COVID-19 pandemic and began working at Starbucks.

“I would honestly just like to get back on my feet again, and I’ve been saving up to move back out with my friends,” he said.

Fuentes said the journey to become financially stable and independent is difficult. He gets paid a little more than $17 an hour and is part-time at Starbucks.

“I kinda have to really budget, and do the least with what I have,” said Fuentes.

One way he saves money is by using a ride-sharing app that Starbucks has a deal with, making his commute to and from work free.

Fuentes has held second jobs, including as a dog walker and event planner. More recently, he started working at a cafe in Hell’s Kitchen to make ends meet.

The Starbucks right by the Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard subway stop is a union coffee shop. It’s one of two union Starbucks locations in Queens.

The lead organizer, Austin Locke, said all 20 baristas at the location are in the union.

Their demands include a higher wage of $20 dollars an hour, with cost-of-living increases every year, more working hours and free health care for full- and part-time workers.

Locke, who’s been with Starbucks for seven years, said he lost his health insurance through work and is on Medicaid now.

“If this was your main income like it is for me, it’s very hard,” said Locke. “I’ve lost my health insurance because they only give part-time hours here, and so I’ve had to go on Medicaid, I don’t get paid enough.”

Locke claims their fight is on hold because Starbucks has not given them a bargaining date since they voted to unionize in June 2022.

In a statement shared with NY1, Starbucks wrote: “We continue to be disappointed by the lack of progress and response from Workers United and are unable to negotiate with our partners at store 31st and Ditmars Blvd until Workers United agrees to our request for bargaining. We have proposed two dates for this store and have received no response from Workers United.”

Meanwhile, workers like Fuentes and Locke said they want to raise awareness so that customers know about the grievances of their neighborhood baristas when they go in for their favorite drinks. 

“We have our regulars and the regulars are sympathetic,” said Fuentes. “It’s Astoria. It’s mostly a blue collar crowd.”

Both struggling to make ends meet, but strapping in for the long haul.

“It’s bigger than me. I’m not in this for personal reasons,” said Locke. “I want to organize the working class, and get us what we need.”

More than 370 Starbucks stores have won union elections across the U.S. since 2021, including seven in New York City.