Unionized Starbucks employees in the region joined the national “Red Cup Rebellion” strike on Nov. 16. St. Louis baristas from eight unionized Starbucks stores in the area protested at the coffee location on S. Grand Boulevard near Tower Grove Park.
Red Cup Day is a promotional event to jumpstart the new seasonal drinks that come with the holidays. The first 50 to 100 customers ordering a handcrafted seasonal drink at participating stores receive a free reusable cup. The Starbucks Workers United union claims the day is “one of the most infamously hard, understaffed days” for their baristas.
Damien Pruett, 22, who works at the Page and Ball location in Maryland Heights, said Starbucks employees have faced unfair labor practices.
“[Red Cup Day] is by far the most busy day of the year, and we are constantly understaffed, underpaid and the strike is just a reflection of that,” Pruett said.
Pruett also expressed that Starbucks was withholding the yearly raises from unionized stores and employees. In September, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Starbucks had violated federal labor law by only offering increased wages and new benefits to non-unionized employees.
Moe Mills, 25, a shift supervisor at the Hanley and Dale location and an organizer with Starbucks Workers United, claimed over 150 stores had joined the strike across the country. Mills said that Starbucks was not willing to give them better working conditions without a struggle.
“With the wages that I make at Starbucks, I could not afford to be a regular at Starbucks. Just to put it in perspective, if you ordered two frappuccinos, I could make a frappuccino in about 20-30 seconds, those two frappuccinos are the same amount of value to Starbucks as an hour of my labor, those two drinks cost the same amount that they pay me for an hour of my work,” Mills said.
“It’s greed and it’s too much, and it’s unacceptable,” Mills added.
Earlier this year, St. Louis only had four unionized Starbucks stores. Now, there are eight stores and around 160 unionized workers. Mills attributes this success to the fact that “when workers realize the power that they have, they have no choice but to organize.” Mills expressed that giving employees better working conditions would help them provide better services to their customers.
Some community members stopped or honked their horns to show solidarity. One supporter, Sam Salameh, a Palestinian-American, found out about the strike while dropping off her kids at school, after which she joined in on the strike
“I just felt like I had to be here to support them, to get unionized, and also just to take a stand because they have been taking a stand with us and our Palestinian cause,” Salameh said.
Last month Starbucks sued its own union for standing in solidarity with Palestine. Workers United president Lynne Fox claimed the action was part of the company’s “anti-union campaign”
The Starbucks Workers United organization aims to improve working conditions for both their employees and service for customers. Some of their core demands include the right to organize, better healthcare plans and wage increases. Since the union’s creation in 2021, 363 Starbucks stores across 41 states have voted to unionize.