As of June 23rd, 2023, Starbucks workers across the country are participating in Strike with Pride, a week-long unfair labor practice strike demanding that Starbucks negotiate a fair contract with union stores and stop their illegal union-busting campaign, which has significantly impacted Starbucks’ LGBTQIA+ workforce. The Seattle Roastery, Starbucks’ Flagship store in its hometown of Seattle, is the first location to kick-off the week-long wave of strikes.
More than 3,000 workers at 150+ stores across the country will go on strike over the next week, just days after Starbucks Workers United revealed how the company is preventing partners from putting up pride decorations in dozens of stores across the U.S. during LGBTQIA+ pride month. This is the latest in Starbucks’s retaliation against workers, which includes threatening workers' access to existing benefits, denying new benefits to union stores, firing worker leaders like Lexi Rizzo, and other illegal attempts to dissuade partners from organizing.
“Starbucks is scared of the power that their queer partners hold, and they should be. Their choice to align themselves with other corporations that have withdrawn their “support” of the queer community in the time we need it most shows that they are not the inclusive company they promote themselves to be,” said Moe Mills, 3.5 year shift supervisor from Richmond Heights, MO. “We’re striking with pride to show the public who Starbucks really is, and to let them know we’re not going anywhere.”
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is currently prosecuting the company for failing to bargain in good faith with workers. So far, in 15 favorable decisions out of 16, NLRB judges have found that Starbucks committed 161 federal labor law violations, including 19 unlawful discharges. The federal government is currently prosecuting Starbucks for approximately 75 complaints, encompassing over 200 charges and alleging over 1,300 violations, including 77 discharges. This makes the Coffee Giant one of the worst violators of labor law in modern U.S. history.
Starbucks Workers United is the union drive that has taken the labor movement by storm. Since December 2021, over 8,000 workers in 330 Starbucks stores in 38 states and the District of Columbia have successfully unionized. Starbucks workers have formed more new unions at a single company than any campaign in the 21st century.
Sign our No Contract, No Coffee pledge for email updates on stores taking action near you, and follow us @SBWorkersUnited on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok for daily updates!
