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Members of Starbucks Workers United are about to go on strike on Red Cup Day, traditionally the company’s busiest day of the year.
After months of stalled contract talks, 90% of unionized workers voted to go on strike unless the coffee giant agrees to a first contract with Starbucks Workers United (SBWU). If a contract isn’t reached by Nov. 13—Red Cup Day, where the company hands out free collectible cups—workers plan to walk off the job.
The Starbucks union comprises approximately 9,500 workers across 650 stores nationwide. Union representatives have been trying to negotiate a first collective bargaining agreement with the company for well over a year. Negotiations have stalled in recent months, and workers have been staging practice pickets across the country to pressure Starbucks to return to the bargaining table.
“If Starbucks keeps stonewalling, they should expect to see their business grind to a halt. The ball is in Starbucks’ court,” SBWU spokesperson Michelle Eisen said in a statement. In its own statement, Starbucks said that any contract “needs to reflect the reality that Starbucks already offers the best job in retail” and that the union only represents 4% of its U.S. locations.
SBWU has targeted Red Cup Days for strikes in the past, calling those strikes the “Red Cup Rebellion.” Union workers have described working on Red Cup Day, when Starbucks hands out free reusable holiday-themed cups, as “one of the most infamously hard, understaffed days for the baristas.”
In September, a coalition of 45 organizations sent a letter to Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, urging him to finalize a contract with the union and pledging not to cross any potential picket lines. The group wrote that “We will continue to back union workers’ fight, including by not crossing barista picket lines at Starbucks if they feel striking is necessary. We may even join them on the picket line if progress toward a fair contract isn’t being made.”
In other Starbucks news, the company agreed last week to sell a majority stake in its Chinese business to the private equity group Boyu Capital for $4 billion. The deal, which Starbucks referred to in a press release as a “joint venture,” is “one of the largest divestments of a China unit by a global consumer company in recent years,” according to Reuters.
Read more on the potential Red Cup Day strike from Reuters here.
