Some Starbucks outlets in the United States will go on strike beginning Friday in Seattle, after the coffee giant and the union representing baristas publicly fought over reports that the corporation was not permitting Pride month decor in cafes.
Starbucks Workers United said more than 150 outlets representing over 3,500 workers have promised to participate in the next strikes. More than two dozen additional stores are voting on strike authorizations, and the total might reach almost 200 by the end of the week, according to the union.
A wave of opposition to LGBTQ+ inclusion appeared to have reached a supposedly liberal bastion in corporate America, according to allegations made by the union last week that hundreds of U.S. stores were forbidding employees from decorating for Pride month. According to Starbucks, the rules for store decorations have not changed.
The firm responded to the strike asserts by saying, “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.”
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What is the Starbucks Workers United?
Workers United is a labor organization in the United States and Canada that represents over 86,000 workers in the garment, textile, commercial laundry, distribution, food service, hospitality, fitness, and non-profit industries.
As of June 2023, over 8,000 Starbucks employees in at least 39 states in the United States had voted to unionize, largely with Workers United.
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Starbucks Workers United has staged strikes at more than 190 different retail locations for a total of more than 450 days. Over the course of its struggle, SBWU has staged multiple strikes. The biggest strike to date took place on March 22, 2023, when 117 union locations participated in the “One Day Longer, One Day Stronger” strike to honor outlasting interim-CEO Howard Schultz, who quit before the Senate HELP committee hearing on union-busting sanctioned by Schultz.
