On a day that the Starbucks head honchos intend to spread holiday cheer, more than 2,000 Starbucks workers went on strike.
Members of the Starbucks Workers Union, including at Williamsburg’s own Starbucks Reserve location, protested outside their respective stores to bring attention to what they feel is the company dragging its feet on entering into good-faith bargaining negotiations.
Starbucks Workers Union says that today’s strike is “the largest coordinated action of the Starbucks Union movement yet…” The timing of the action, dubbed Red Cup Rebellion, is specifically tied to Red Cup Day, an annual Starbucks tradition where customers can get a limited edition reusable holiday cup.
The strike shut down the Williamsburg location for the day. Workers at the Williamsburg store won their union election in June, alongside several other newly unionized locations across New York City. They most recently striked in October, also shutting down the store for the day.
“Workers at the Williamsburg Reserve location allege that Starbucks has undertaken unilateral changes in hours and benefits, offered raises to workers at non-union locations but refused to raise the wages of union workers, chronically understaffed the location and failed to provide training to new hires, among other issues,” read an October press release from Starbucks Workers United.
Assemblymember Emily Gallagher and City Council Member Lincoln Restler joined workers on the picket line.
As American as apple pie. This is repeating the union movement in the 1930s when like today big business treated workers like slaves. Then unions lost their way with corruption and over reach and fell out of favor and the pendulum swung back to big business.
Now the pendulum has reversed itself to the 1930s.