Employees at more than 100 Starbucks stores across the United States plan to stop work on Thursday to protest what they see as the company’s anti-union tactics.
Dubbed the “red cup rebellion”, the one-day strike organized by the SWU union coincides with a major marketing move by the chain, which intends to distribute a free reusable red cup to customers who buy a drink at one of the thousands of establishments.
In place of branded cups, workers will distribute red cups from the union, informed the SWU (Starbucks Workers United), which represents almost 7,000 employees in the United States.
The move is a “response to Starbucks’ anti-union tactics and its refusal to negotiate,” the union said in a statement.
The organization added that workers demand the right to organize a union free from intimidation and fear.
“Unless Starbucks comes to the table and negotiates a fair contract in good faith, we can count on this to happen again,” the union said.
A group of Starbucks employees in the city of Buffalo, in the northern United States, surprised at the end of 2021 by creating the first union in a location directly managed by the chain in the country. More than 260 establishments have joined SWU since then.
The federally operated National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued dozens of complaints and grievances against Starbucks. In August, a judge ordered the company to rehire seven employees at a Memphis, Tenn., franchise fired for trying to unionize.
Starbucks did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment on Thursday’s strike.
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