Some Utah Starbucks locations join nationwide strike
Nov 16, 2023, 9:11 AM | Updated: 9:24 am
FILE - Starbucks employees and supporters link arms during a union election watch party Dec. 9, 2021, in Buffalo, N.Y. Thousands of U.S. Starbucks workers plan to walk off the job Thursday -- one of the chain's busiest days of the year -- to protest the company's anti-union stance. (AP Photo/Joshua Bessex, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Joshua Bessex, File)
SALT LAKE CITY — Some local baristas will join the nationwide strike against Starbucks on Thursday, According to a press release from Starbucks Workers United, two Utah stores will participate in what is being dubbed the “Red Cup Rebellion.”
Employees planned the strike on the popular Red Cup Day which is one of the busiest days for the coffee chain.
Starbucks Workers United said a staffing crisis and a refusal to bargain with baristas brought on the strike. Additionally, employees take issue with unpredictable schedules.
“Time and time again Starbucks has failed us with the support and allyship we need,” wrote Yesica Medina, a barista from the Bountiful location in the press release.
“The company makes it clear that they do not listen to workers by flooding us with customers for
promotion days like these. They make astronomical profits all while we as workers are stressed,
tired, underpaid, and exhausted,” Medina continued.
Starbucks Workers United claimed Starbucks has illegally offered benefits to workers at only nonunion stores including credit card tipping.
Starbucks strikes, unions growing
Across the country, Starbucks stores have started to unionize. A Cottonwood Heights location formed a union in June of 2022 becoming the first Utah location to do so.
Starbucks Workers United reported over 360 stores have unionized across the country, including three in Utah.
The Utah stores taking part in the strike are the South Salt Lake location on 2101 South State St. and 422 West 500 South in Bountiful.
Additionally, the Starbucks Workers United website said there will be a demonstration outside of the 13th and Simpson Starbucks location on Thursday morning.
