CorePower Yoga Teachers Plan Strike and Renewed Unionization Campaign

CorePower Yoga instructors have launched a renewed campaign for better pay and working conditions that organizers say includes plans for strikes and fresh union drives. The push began with a MoveOn.org petition in December 2025 requesting fairer wages and other demands, and organizers have signaled activity in markets including New York and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

Teachers and former instructors say pay, staffing, and safety are driving the escalation. A statement from a group of current and former CorePower instructors says, “Across CorePower Yoga studios, instructors are being asked to shoulder an expanding scope of labor without adequate pay, staffing, or protection. Teachers are expected to teach, run front desks, clean studios and equipment, manage facilities, and close or open studios alone, often in the early morning or late at night.” The group added, “In some cases, this work has occurred alongside serious safety issues such as flooding, electrical hazards, and security incidents, without proper support or protocols in place. This is not incidental. It is systemic.”

Individual instructors emphasize the gap between the work and the pay. A New York-area teacher identified only as “Anna” said, “It’s really fun because I get to teach. I get to make my own playlists and classes,” and also, “I’m not doing it for the money, because we’re not really getting paid much; we do it for the community.” CorePower teachers previously attempted to organize in 2019 and 2020; the only yoga-teacher group known to complete formal union steps in that period was a set of YogaWorks instructors.

CorePower has publicly pointed to recent measures it says it has taken, including market-specific wage increases, a studio refurbishing program, and a new professional-development benefit for hourly instructors. The company statement includes, “We are committed to providing a safe, clean, and professional environment for our teachers, employees, and students,” and, “It’s important to us that our team feels seen, heard, supported, and valued.” At the same time, reporting has surfaced an internal recording in which CEO Niki Leondakis said the best way to address teacher pay was to “change the conversation.”

Past pandemic-era staffing choices also form part of the dispute. An instructor quoted as Caldwell recalled company layoffs announced over Zoom and their personal fallout: “And they just said, ‘The HEROES or the CARES Act passed so we think it's a good time to just lay everybody off. You guys can collect that extra $600 a week and when we reopen our studios we'll need you back,’” and later described housing changes tied to low pay: “I had already lined up living at my dad's house in Oakland. I'd moved back home so that I could take that job because otherwise there's no way on my own I was going to be able to afford living in San Francisco. I just absolutely wasn't going to even come close to being able to do that.”

Economic context for the debate is stark: “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for all types of fitness instructors, including yoga teachers, was $22.20 per hour in 2024.” Some studio owners who teach, such as Ashlee McDougall of Yoga Loft Tucson, have tried to raise pay and found margins tight. McDougall “made an effort to pay her teachers what she considered a fair rate,” and “quickly learned that in order to do so, she wouldn’t make a profit, at least not at first.”

For students and studio managers, the immediate effect will be on class rosters and operations. An Instagram post by U Power Yoga on January 11, 2026 indicated that “… CorePower yoga teachers are planning a strike and trying to unionize again ... Photo shared by U Power Yoga on January 11, 2026 tagging @” which organizers and local studios may expand into walkouts or work actions. Verify class schedules before attending, and expect further developments as instructors continue card-signing drives and organizers weigh formal steps. Long term, this campaign could reshape pay norms, studio staffing practices, and safety protocols across the chain and the broader yoga community.