Starbucks Workers Across New York City Walk Out in “Red Cup Rebellion”

By Arthur Schwartz

Nearly three years after the start of the Starbucks union campaign, frustrations are at a boiling point at unionized Starbucks stores across the U.S. On November 16, for the second year in a row, workers walked off the job in what they deemed the “Red Cup Rebellion.” This a protest of a national “Red Cup” promotional event where the company hands out free reusable cups. The event makes up one of its busiest customer traffic days of the year.

In Manhattan, unionized Starbucks workers gathered a coalition of organized labor and local elected officials at a Midtown store.

At nine stores across the city and Nassau and Suffolk counties, their union, Starbucks Workers United, organized the walkout in protest of the coffee giant’s refusal to bargain with baristas over staffing, scheduling and other issues. The union represents more than 9,000 Starbucks workers at more than 300 stores across the country. The coffee chain responded that it’s the union that has stalled negotiations, despite the fact that the National Labor Relations Board has issued hundreds of “failure to bargain” unfair labor practice complaints against Starbucks, more than any other employer in the U.S.A.

“Every worker dreads working Red Cup Day, everyone tries to get it off. It’s a very challenging day to work. And I think the main issue is that Starbucks does not often allow us extra staffing,” said Riley Fell, a former barista and Starbucks Workers United organizer.

At the 90 Park Avenue store, where workers and elected officials rallied, Starbucks workers filed complaints with the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs alleging that the company is in breach of the city’s Fair Workweek Law. The law deals with scheduling and mandates fast-food operators to provide their employees with work schedules at least two weeks in advance. Organizers asserted that the company failed to meet the threshold of advanced notice at the Midtown store or the 14 others where workers filed complaints on November 16.

“I have to work later at my store and I do not think we will have enough people. We’re going to be swarmed,” said Cris Mathieu, a barista at a financial district Starbucks where workers first filed a complaint about the company breaching scheduling requirements last February.

The strike has elicited support from the city and state elected officials including Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and State Senate Labor Chair Jessica Ramos.

“Starbucks is out of compliance with the law and Starbucks needs to be held accountable. Every single Starbucks worker needs to have fair scheduling. Needs to have fair pay. Needs to have their union recognized,” Ramos said.

In September, a judge for the Labor Board ruled that Starbucks had violated federal law by limiting raises and benefit improvements to nonunionized workers. Another administrative judge ruled in March that Starbucks had repeatedly violated federal labor laws by illegally tampering with union organizing and firing employees who sought to unionize.

In June, unionized workers declared a weeklong strike at more than 150 stores, protesting what they said was the company’s ban on Pride Month apparel and treatment of LGBTQ workers — an assertion that management denied. Starbucks said the protest had temporarily closed 21 stores.

Starbucks response has been to stonewall. It has only one goal — wait the union out.

Remember this the next time you choose Starbucks over a local deli. Or, you can patronize Blank Street Coffee, a growing chain which has welcomed unionization. They have locations at 295 Fifth Ave., 300 Bleecker St. and 236 Lafayette St.