Duluth Starbucks Workers Participate In One-Day Strike

DULUTH, Minn. — Thursday thousands of Starbucks workers participated in a one-day strike called the Red Cup Rebellion.

The strike included Duluth Starbucks workers. The workers say the company is illegally refusing to bargain with baristas over staffing, scheduling, and other issues.

Starbucks Workers United says they are unionizing because employees have been overworked and have been ignored when it comes to their availability around schedules.

The strike also comes on Red Cup Day which is when the company gives away thousands of reusable cups making it one of the busiest days of the year. The workers say promotion days like this cause a flood of customers to stores without additional staffing to cover the orders.

“There’s been wait times up to 30 to 40 minutes in the drive-thru which is causing people late to work and us to be overwhelmed. And so, we’re just trying to fight for fair staffing when it comes to that and also increased wages to have liveable wages,” said Austin Lage, shift supervisor at Duluth’s Woodland Starbucks.

According to a press release from Starbucks Workers United, employees are demanding Starbucks turn off mobile ordering on future promotion days.

We reached out to Starbucks for comment. A statement from Andrew Trull a spokesperson says:

• We are aware that Workers United has publicized a day of action at a small subset of our U.S. stores this week. We remain committed to working with all partners, side-by-side, to elevate the everyday, and we hope that Workers United’s priorities will shift to include the shared success of our partners and working to negotiate contracts for those they represent.

• Despite escalating rhetoric and recurring rallies demanding a contract, Workers United hasn’t agreed to meet to progress contract bargaining in more than five months. As we join together to uplift the holiday season and reflect on the past year, we again call on Workers United to fulfill their obligations and engage in the work of negotiating first contracts on behalf of the partners they represent. Starbucks remains ready to progress in-person negotiations with the unions certified to represent partners.

• We understand that these promotional days may change store patterns and traffic, and that’s why our retail leaders have the flexibility to build and adjust staffing schedules to reflect the unique and dynamic needs of each store — balancing store resources and expected customer demand to ensure partners (employees) are on the floor when they’re needed most. Notably, our store schedules are created three weeks in advance with our partners’ availability and preferences at the forefront and our stores are often provided additional labor hours to augment staffing in support of planned promotional days.   

• Starbucks is dedicated to partner-centric scheduling and providing partners with hours that align with their individual needs and preferences is a top priority. This is reflected in Starbucks commitment to diligently create work schedules that carefully balance the availability of our partners with the staffing needs of individual stores. To achieve this, Starbucks collects a range of preferred, minimum, and maximum hours to build a complete picture of partner preferences and assist store managers in scheduling and managing their workforce. This improved scheduling protocol will enable partners to contribute to the personalization of their ideal schedules. Together, these efforts will help Starbucks improve the stability, flexibility, and consistency of schedules.