Red Cup Rebellion — Starbucks Workers Join More Than 100 Unionized Starbucks Stores In National ULP Strike

ANAHEIM — On Nov.17, workers at the Katella and Anaheim Starbucks store will be striking in solidarity with their fellow workers across the country. They join a total of more than 100 stores participating in “Red Cup Rebellion,” a nationwide unfair labor practice or ULP strike demanding Starbucks fully staff all union stores and begin bargaining in good faith. The Anaheim Starbucks store is also striking in response to management’s failure to respond and protect female partners against sexual harassment.

Red Cup Rebellion takes place the same day as the corporation’s Red Cup Day, on which thousands of Starbucks locations across the country will offer customers a branded Starbucks cup with select purchases. Striking workers will be demonstrating outside of their stores and handing out Starbucks Workers United branded cups to customers instead.

In Its press release Workers United-SEIU reported Starbucks partners are the face and cornerstone of the company, yet they are forced into running perpetually understaffed stores, and given inconsistent schedules they can’t rely on. Conditions like these are what led Starbucks partners nationwide to begin unionizing, and the company has only responded with disdain and disregard for its employees. Now, Starbucks partners are demanding the company meet them at the bargaining table to create improved standards in staffing and scheduling, along with a host of other bargaining proposals that have been crafted by partner leaders across the country. 

“We’re going on strike because management refuses to acknowledge female baristas complaints against sexual harassment, saying “it’s not that serious” and that the perpetrator “will be professional from now on,” said Esme Vazquez, barista at the Anaheim Starbucks. “We want our voices heard, we refuse to let it be swept under the rug again.”

Starbucks Workers United represents over 250 locations accounting for nearly 7,000 workers in the country. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued 39 official complaints against Starbucks, encompassing over 900 alleged violations of federal labor law.