Workers at unionized Starbucks locations across the U.S. are going on strike Friday over an ongoing dispute centred on the coffee giant not allowing Pride decorations in some of its stores.
The union, Starbucks Workers United, said more than 150 stores and 3,500 workers are joining the strike, though that number could rise to nearly 200 stores as additional locations vote on strike authorizations.
Starbucks stated that it has not changed its policies around Pride decorations in its stores, and that store leaders are encouraged to decorate locations for Pride and other community celebrations, as long as the decorations adhere to safety guidelines.
But Starbucks Workers United claim that while the coffee giant “gives autonomy to local leaders to ‘find ways to celebrate,'” those same local leaders are the ones “issuing many of the Pride bans.”
The union pointed to a leaked memo from a Starbucks manager in Oklahoma City who wrote: “I know there has been some concerns around not decorating for Pride this year. The decision was made last year on a regional level to create consistency from store to store.”
Starbucks Workers United told Forbes that Oklahoma workers were allegedly told not to decorate for Pride because of safety concerns, amid recent bomb threats made against Target for selling Pride merchandise.
The union has claimed that at least 100 locations in 22 states have been barred from decorating for Pride.
Starbucks workers are also striking over claims that the company is stalling on negotiating contracts with the union.
“Good faith bargaining looks like both sides providing proposals and trying to meet in the middle — Starbucks is not willing to do that,” Workers United said in a statement. “Despite having our non-economic proposals for over (eight) months and our economic proposals for over a month now, Starbucks has failed to tentatively agree to a single line of a single proposal or provide a single counter proposal. What Starbucks is doing is not bargaining, it’s stalling.”
Meanwhile, Starbucks has asserted that the union has only responded to about a quarter of more than 450 bargaining sessions the company has proposed for individual stores across the U.S., CNBC reported.
Some Starbucks workers in Canada have unionized in a parallel effort with U.S. employees, though Canadian unionized Starbucks workers are represented by the United Steelworkers Union (USW).
In 2020, employees of a Starbucks shop in Victoria were the first in North America to join a union and since then workers in Vancouver, Surrey and Langley, B.C., as well as those in Edmonton, Sherwood Park and Calgary, Alta., have followed suit, the union says. In May, a Waterloo Starbucks location became the first in Ontario to join the union.
USW told Global News that none of the USW-represented Starbucks locations in B.C. and Alberta have reported their Pride decorations being taken down, and it hasn’t “heard anything about non-union stores,” either.
None of the unionized Starbucks locations in Canada affiliated with USW are going on strike, the union said.
Starbucks Canada told Global News that it has not changed its policy around Pride decorations.
“We unwaveringly support the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and are deeply concerned by false information that is being spread, especially as it relates to our inclusive store environments, our company culture and the benefits we offer our partners (employees).”
— with files from Global News’ Sarah Do Couto and Kevin Nielsen
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