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Hundreds of Starbucks employees went on strike Thursday, amid the coffee chain’s busy holiday season, to protest working conditions and push company leaders to recognize workers’ unionizing efforts at stores nationwide and meet them at the bargaining table.
The protest took place on Starbucks’ Red Cup Day, as the company rolled out its annual holiday themed red cups and gave out limited-edition reusable versions of the cups to customers ordering holiday or fall beverages.
More than 1,000 members of the Starbucks Workers Union picketed outside of over 100 stores across the country for what they called the «Red Cup Rebellion.»
Union leaders sent a mass email to media and union members with details of the strike, which it described as the «biggest coordinated national action taken by union Starbucks stores in the campaign’s history.»
The email stated that the strike was a «response to Starbucks’ union-busting tactics and refusal to bargain,» and noted that striking workers would be «handing out red Starbucks Workers United union cups to customers instead.»
As customers headed in to order coffee and get their hands on the collectible holiday reusable cups, many baristas said they would walk out in protest.
«Despite being the face of the company, Starbucks partners are underpaid, forced to run perpetually understaffed stores, and don’t have consistent schedules they can rely on,» the union email stated.
