Thousands of Starbucks workers will be on strike this Pride month over Pride decoration policies and what the Starbucks Workers United union has called “illegal union busting” activities.
According to a series of tweets from the organization, the Seattle Roastery is leading the strike and it includes more than 150 stores. Employees will be striking over the coming week.
“Some clarification for those who have been following Strike with Pride. This is an UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICE STRIKE over Starbucks’ refusal to bargain over changes in pride decoration policies in addition to their illegal union-busting campaign impacting queer workers,” said a Saturday tweet.
Starbucks Workers United has a list of requests up on its website. These include fair pay of at least $20 per hour for baristas, consistent schedules, the right to organize and more. They use the #nocontractnocoffee hashtag.
Now, during Pride month, the union is also tackling issues with the company’s treatment of LGBTQ staff.
“Starbucks claims to care about queer workers, yet they will not bargain with us. You can read about some of our specific demands to protect LGBTQIA+ workers here,” said a tweet.
Specific LGBTQ related demands include: access to gender-affirming care, gender neutral bathrooms, grievance procedure to prevent bias in the workplace, protection from discrimination and sexual harassment, and “an end to intimidation tactics.”
“Starbucks tokenizes queer & trans workers and uses us for positive PR & profit, but they don’t want to listen to us,” said the union. “Enough of the performative progressivism – we demand Starbucks come to the table to bargain a contract that legally GUARANTEES our rights.”
Earlier this month, the union tweeted that Starbucks had banned Pride decorations and took down Pride decorations and flags in union stores. It said this followed controversy over Pride products sold at Target
According to CBS News, a Starbucks spokesperson vehemently denied the allegations Friday. They said “Workers United continues to spread false information about our benefits, policies and negotiation efforts, a tactic used to seemingly divide our partners and deflect from their failure to respond to bargaining sessions for more than 200 stores.”
On Saturday, the union said the strike was going strong, with more stores joining. For example, four stores in Illinois joined the strike.
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