Pink Cup Day, the day Starbucks releases its collectible vacation cups, is without doubt one of 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 Insurrection concerned strikes at over 100 shops and was SBWU’s largest coordinated effort thus far. This yr, SBWU says it’ll be even greater.
On November 16, in accordance with SBWU, 1000’s of employees will as soon as once more stroll out of a whole lot 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 clients and extra orders, which employees say they have to handle and not using a full workers, resulting in elevated wait instances, nerve-racking circumstances, and in the end a nasty expertise for everybody. “Understaffing hurts employees and in addition creates an disagreeable expertise for purchasers,” Neha Cremin, a barista in Oklahoma Metropolis, says in a press launch. “Starbucks has made it clear that they received’t take heed to employees, so we’re advocating for ourselves by occurring strike.”
In an announcement to Eater, Starbucks mentioned 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 Insurrection had palpable results, setting in movement some bargaining periods with administration. However extra importantly, it solidified the organizing efforts within the eyes of employees, the corporate, and most people. “That reminded Starbucks that Starbucks Employees United is a reliable entity, it isn’t only a few rebellious shops,” they mentioned. 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 clients’ model loyalty. It could not be the feeling it’s if clients 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 employees as a lot because it values its cash, and its cash comes from its clients,” says Searl.
This yr, SBWU needs to leverage that relationship by asking clients to face with the employees who create the experiences they return for day after day. SBWU is asking clients to hitch rallies outdoors of Starbucks areas, write to Starbucks executives demanding they cut price with the union, or to convey pamphlets to non-unionized shops. They’re additionally inviting non-unionized Starbucks employees to stroll out in solidarity.
Why are Starbucks employees 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 maintain employees from exercising their proper to talk to the press. Employees additionally took to social media in June, drawing consideration to some employees not being allowed to embellish their shops for Delight month. However for all these actions, no contracts have been signed.
In its assertion to Eater, Starbucks mentioned 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 periods, or made unreasonable calls for. In line with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, as of October 16, regional places of work of the board “have issued 105 complaints overlaying 369 ULP expenses in opposition to Starbucks Company and Siren Retail Company following investigation. This features a consolidated criticism that alleges that Starbucks has failed or refused to cut price with 242 licensed bargaining items in 31 states (and DC).”
Starbucks has additionally denied unionized employees advantages it offers to employees at non-unionized shops, and has threatened to take away advantages from employees in the event that they unionize. For example, an NLRB decide discovered a Starbucks supervisor in Wisconsin illegally informed employees they’d lose their abortion journey profit in the event that they fashioned a union. And just lately, Starbucks raised wages and launched higher advantages at non-union shops, however says unionized shops have to cut price over receiving these identical advantages. Beforehand, Starbucks, and particularly former CEO Howard Schultz, argued that it could’t give higher advantages to unionized shops as a result of below federal legislation they’d have to cut price 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 mentioned is just not true and is in truth a violation of labor legislation.
What’s totally different about this yr’s Pink Cup Insurrection?
Whereas the stalemate continues, one of many largest variations to the Pink Cup Day strike this yr is coordinated actions from faculties. Cornell College just lately determined it could finish its contract with Starbucks, and college students at Georgetown, UCLA, Boston College, College of Washington, and extra are asking their faculties to divest from the corporate.
In a petition to Georgetown President John DeGioia, a gaggle of over 300 college students, workers, college and campus organizations has requested the varsity to terminate its licensing settlement with Starbucks, and to divest from Starbucks inventory, of which the varsity owns 49,957 shares, valued at almost $5 million. “Eradicating Starbucks from our campus and divesting from the company could be an unimaginable present of solidarity with Starbucks Employees United and workers combating for the fitting to type 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 employees and college students on campus, and the Jesuit college’s acknowledged values of justice and care.
A yr out from the primary Pink Cup Insurrection, what’s sure is that Starbucks’ makes an attempt to curb unionization efforts up to now haven’t been working. Over 100 extra shops have unionized since final yr, the entire being over 360. Which suggests employees 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 wherever,” says Searl. “In the event that they don’t cut price with us now, they should cut price with 400 extra shops in a couple of years.”