Pink Cup Day, the day Starbucks releases its collectible vacation cups, is among the firm’s most worthwhile. However final yr, Starbucks Employees United used the event to attract consideration to its ongoing combat for unionization. The group’s Pink Cup Rise up concerned strikes at over 100 shops and was SBWU’s largest coordinated effort thus far. This yr, SBWU says it’ll be even larger.
On November 16, in keeping with SBWU, hundreds of staff will as soon as once more stroll out of tons of of Starbucks areas to protest working circumstances, together with short-staffing and the frequency of promotional days like Pink Cup Day. Promotional days convey extra prospects and extra orders, which staff say they have to handle with no full workers, resulting in elevated wait occasions, disturbing circumstances, and finally a nasty expertise for everybody. “Understaffing hurts staff and likewise creates an disagreeable expertise for patrons,” Neha Cremin, a barista in Oklahoma Metropolis, says in a press launch. “Starbucks has made it clear that they received’t hearken to staff, so we’re advocating for ourselves by happening strike.”
In a press release to Eater, Starbucks stated it stays “dedicated to working with all companions, side-by-side, to raise the on a regular basis, and we hope that Employees United’s priorities will shift to incorporate the shared success of our companions and dealing to barter contracts for these they signify.” (Emphasis theirs.)
Shepard Searl, a barista and organizer in Chicago, says final yr’s Pink Cup Rise up had palpable results, setting in movement some bargaining classes with administration. However extra importantly, it solidified the organizing efforts within the eyes of staff, the corporate, and most of the people. “That reminded Starbucks that Starbucks Employees United is a authentic entity, it isn’t just some rebellious shops,” they stated. This yr’s motion would be the largest within the union’s historical past.
What’s Pink Cup Day and why did the SBWU select it for its strike motion?
Pink Cup Day is a testomony to Starbucks prospects’ model loyalty. It might not be the feeling it’s if prospects weren’t coming again yearly, wanting to gather the free, reusable vacation cups and be the primary to strive new winter drinks. “Starbucks depends so closely on its buyer base. Starbucks doesn’t worth its staff as a lot because it values its cash, and its cash comes from its prospects,” says Searl.
This yr, SBWU desires to leverage that relationship by asking prospects to face with the employees who create the experiences they return for day after day. SBWU is asking prospects to hitch rallies outdoors of Starbucks areas, write to Starbucks executives demanding they discount with the union, or to convey pamphlets to non-unionized shops. They’re additionally inviting non-unionized Starbucks staff to stroll out in solidarity.
Why are Starbucks staff placing now?
Although Starbucks areas have continued to unionize over the previous yr, Searl says SBWU and Starbucks have been caught in a “stalemate.” The union has filed a number of Nationwide Labor Relations Board (NLRB) complaints over unlawful punishment and firings, unfair labor practices, and utilizing the corporate media coverage to preserve staff from exercising their proper to talk to the press. Employees additionally took to social media in June, drawing consideration to some staff not being allowed to embellish their shops for Satisfaction month. However for all these actions, no contracts have been signed.
In its assertion to Eater, Starbucks stated SBWU hasn’t agreed to fulfill with the corporate in 4 months, and that the corporate is able to “progress in-person negotiations with the unions licensed to signify companions.”
A spokesperson from SBWU tells Eater they’ve by no means refused to fulfill on the bargaining desk with Starbucks, and that it’s the firm that has stalled, discovered excuses to stroll out of classes, or made unreasonable calls for. In accordance with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, as of October 16, regional places of work of the board “have issued 105 complaints overlaying 369 ULP prices towards Starbucks Company and Siren Retail Company following investigation. This features a consolidated grievance that alleges that Starbucks has failed or refused to discount with 242 licensed bargaining models in 31 states (and DC).”
Starbucks has additionally denied unionized staff advantages it offers to staff at non-unionized shops, and has threatened to take away advantages from staff in the event that they unionize. For example, an NLRB decide discovered a Starbucks supervisor in Wisconsin illegally informed staff they’d lose their abortion journey profit in the event that they shaped a union. And lately, Starbucks raised wages and launched higher advantages at non-union shops, however says unionized shops have to discount over receiving these similar advantages. Beforehand, Starbucks, and particularly former CEO Howard Schultz, argued that it could possibly’t give higher advantages to unionized shops as a result of underneath federal regulation they’d have to discount over these advantages. “Starbucks has adhered to long-standing authorized obligations, which required it to distinguish between unionized or organizing companions and companions in all different shops,” Starbucks spokesperson Rachel Wall informed CNN final week. That is an argument the NLRB has repeatedly stated just isn’t true and is in actual fact a violation of labor regulation.
What’s totally different about this yr’s Pink Cup Rise up?
Whereas the stalemate continues, one of many largest variations to the Pink Cup Day strike this yr is coordinated actions from schools. Cornell College lately determined it will finish its contract with Starbucks, and college students at Georgetown, UCLA, Boston College, College of Washington, and extra are asking their schools to divest from the corporate.
In a petition to Georgetown President John DeGioia, a bunch of over 300 college students, workers, college and campus organizations has requested the college to terminate its licensing settlement with Starbucks, and to divest from Starbucks inventory, of which the college owns 49,957 shares, valued at almost $5 million. “Eradicating Starbucks from our campus and divesting from the company could be an unbelievable present of solidarity with Starbucks Employees United and workers combating for the best to kind a union at Starbucks, as lots of the leaders on this motion are both college students themselves or latest graduates,” the group says, noting the quite a few unions representing staff and college students on campus, and the Jesuit faculty’s acknowledged values of justice and care.
A yr out from the primary Pink Cup Rise up, what’s sure is that Starbucks’ makes an attempt to curb unionization efforts to this point haven’t been working. Over 100 extra shops have unionized since final yr, the full being over 360. Which implies staff are going to proceed agitating, protesting, and organizing. “One factor that we’re urgent is the urgency, as a result of this motion isn’t going anyplace,” says Searl. “In the event that they don’t discount with us now, they must discount with 400 extra shops in a couple of years.”
