Empty stores and unused red cups: A look at the Starbucks strikes.
Starbucks workers around the country are ringing in the holiday season with a strike.
More than 2,000 workers at over 100 Starbucks stores nationwide took part in their largest union action to date on Thursday, protesting the company’s refusal to bargain with unionized workers. They’re doing so on the 25th annual Red Cup Day, one of the busiest days of the year for the company, when Starbucks offers free reusable red cups with every holiday drink order. Instead of ringing up customers or making extravagant seasonal coffees, these workers are holding picket signs, talking to customers outside stores about the union, and handing out their own red cups decorated with a Grinch-like hand holding aloft an ornament bearing the Workers United union logo.
While striking stores represent just 1 percent of the 9,000 company-operated Starbucks in the US, their actions were highly visible to their customers and, through media coverage, to the American public, which has been increasingly supportive of unions.
“With 100 stores nationwide on strike today, I think it will definitely make an impact,” said Ash Macomber from outside her closed store, located 20 minutes from Portland, Maine. “Not only with profits, but to show the company that we are stronger together, and once we collectively take action, then maybe change can really be made.”
A union spokesperson said a “vast majority” of striking stores were closed today, meaning they didn’t bring in any revenue on what is typically a very lucrative day and is considered the start of Starbucks’ winter holiday push. Workers used words like “extraordinary” and “insane” to describe the typical traffic on Red Cup Day, with some estimating traffic to be double what it normally is. This year, some of those red cups are sitting in darkened stores.
Starbucks did not respond to a request for comment about the impact of the strikes. On an earnings call earlier this month, Starbucks founder Howard D. Schultz said, “The strength of our business as we exited September, coupled with a fantastic holiday lineup kicking off today, with our stores turning red, holiday favorites on the menu, and the return of our iconic red cups, gives us tremendous confidence heading into holiday in 2023.
