WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — If you noticed your local Starbucks was busier than usual, they may have been operating with fewer staff. Across the country, staff at more than 200 Starbucks stores are walking off the job Thursday, sounding the alarm on issues they say have been steeping for several years.
Starbucks workers hit the picket lines the same day the company hosted its Red Cup Day promotion. Customers often rally to get their hands on its popular seasonal reusable cups.
Striking workers have dubbed it Red Cup Rebellion Day.
“They’re understaffed is one thing,” said Starbucks Workers United Union Rep. Alberto Garcia. “We’re trying to get them contract security and more money. We’re hoping that with all this noise we’re making, we get them to sit down and negotiate a fair contract."
At least 363 company-operated Starbucks stores in 41 states have voted to unionize since late 2021. The Starbucks effort was at the leading edge of a period of labor activism that has also seen strikes by Amazon workers, auto workers and Hollywood writers and actors. At least 457,000 workers have participated in 315 strikes in the U.S. just this year, according to Johnnie Kallas, a Ph.D. candidate and the project director of Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker.
Starbucks opposes the unionization effort and has yet to reach a labor agreement with any stores that have voted to unionize. The process has been contentious; regional offices with the National Labor Relations Board have issued 111 complaints against Starbucks for unfair labor practices, including refusal to bargain. Starbucks says Workers United is refusing to schedule bargaining sessions.
“We’re looking at unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks due to the continued use of promotional days like Red Cup Day, in which the company will send out promotions to customers and intentionally understaff us,” said Starbucks employee Travis Glenney-Tegtmeier. “Today, we were staffed really no more than a normal day when the expected customer traffic is probably double what a normal day is.”
Starbucks employee Charles Proventud has worked for the company for over 10 years and said that if he and his colleagues continue to let the company treat them at this current standard, things will only worsen.
“I feel like they’re making it an issue to burn us out and make sure that we waste our resources because they have a lot more,” Proventud said.
Starbucks noted that it has started bargaining with the Teamsters union, which organized a Starbucks store outside of Pittsburgh in June 2022. However, the two sides have not reached a labor agreement. The Teamsters didn’t say Wednesday whether workers at the unionized store would also be striking.
Relations between Starbucks and Workers United have grown increasingly tense. Last month, Starbucks sued Workers United, saying a pro-Palestinian post on a union account damaged its reputation and demanding that the union stop using the name Starbucks Workers United. Workers United responded with its own lawsuit, saying Starbucks defamed the union by suggesting it supports terrorism and violence.
Symphonie Privett is a trending reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at sprivett@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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