Starbucks Union Plans Walkouts on Red Cup Day

Facts

• Thousands of Starbucks employees at nearly 200 unionized stores across the US are set to stage a walkout on the company's annual Red Cup Day, to protest issues concerning pay, staffing, and work schedules.¹
• According to the Starbucks Workers Union, striking employees will demand Starbucks 'stop illegally refusing to bargain with baristas' and will also demand that mobile ordering be turned off on promotion days.²
• The multinational coffeehouse chain's employees walking off the job will also visit colleagues at non-union stores, inviting them to join the union.³
• Starbucks — which hands out thousands of reusable, holiday-themed cups on Red Cup Day — has refused to negotiate critical issues, including staffing, which are 'creating unnecessarily stressful working conditions.'⁴
• The union, which had called for protests at more than 100 Starbucks stores on the same day last year, claims that Starbucks' Red Cup Day is 'one of the most infamously hard, understaffed days for baristas.'⁵
• This comes after Starbucks claimed that the union had not met with company officials in over four months despite weekly requests. Starbucks stated that it 'remains ready to progress in-person negotiations with the unions.'⁶

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²Yahoo Finance, ³USA Today, ⁴CBS, ⁵Reuters and ⁶Forbes.

Narratives

• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Time. Respectable working conditions and rights to bargain are for everyone. By laying off employees who want to unionize as well as hiking wages and adding new benefits only for non-union employees, Starbucks is indulging in unfair labor practices and violating federal law.
• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Yahoo Finance. Despite multiple requests, Starbucks Workers United has yet to talk to management. Such posturing may not be helpful when the company has hiked the hourly wage and benefits for most US workers. This includes employees in more than 75 union-represented stores in the US.