Workers at hundreds of Starbucks stores, including some in San Diego, walked off their jobs during a key promotional event Thursday, demanding improved staffing and schedules.
The Starbucks Workers United account confirmed the job actions on X, the social media platform.
The walkout comes on the chain’s “Red Cup Day,” during which Starbucks hands out free red-colored, reusable, holiday-themed cups to customers. Strikers called their action a “Red Cup Rebellion.”
Among the Southern California stores included in the strike were locations in San Diego, Lakewood, Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Anaheim and three in Los Angeles.
Fox5 San Diego reported that one of the local locations was on University Avenue in Hillcrest.
Starbucks said on Thursday its stores in the U.S. were “open,” adding that “a few dozen stores with some partners (were) on strike”, but more than half of those stores were open this morning, “serving customers.”
About a dozen workers picketed outside Starbucks’ Astor Place outlet at the New York University campus chanting “no contract, no coffee” and other rhymes. Meanwhile, Astor Place continued to fill with NYU staff and students placing orders.
Red Cup day has typically been a major driver of store traffic, with Placer.ai data showing that visits to U.S. Starbucks stores on the day last year jumped 94% over the daily average for the full year.
Workers United, which represents more than 9,000 Starbucks employees at about 360 U.S. stores, has said the event was one of the “most infamously hard, understaffed days,” as drink orders pile up and employees end up on the receiving end of abuse from frustrated customers over long wait times.
Mary Boca, 22, a New York barista, said she wants to see higher pay and more staff at Starbucks.
“I have heard our managers saying they need to hire 12 people. At a peak period, that’s a lot of people to be out of.”
Boca said that her Starbucks location does not allow customers to tip, which leaves her without an extra $100 in each paycheck.
Edwin Palma Solis, 24, another worker, said he thinks the inability for customers to tip at the store has deterred some potential hires from joining the location.
Starbucks has nearly 10,000 U.S. company-owned locations, and says that less than 3% of those stores are represented by a union.
Last year, workers at more than 100 such Starbucks locations had held a one-day strike on Red Cup day.
Earlier this month, Starbucks said it would raise hourly pay for its U.S. retail workers by at least 3% in 2024. Employees, though, criticized the move, calling it “tone deaf” given Starbucks’ 11% increase in fourth-quarter revenue and recent wage hikes won by auto workers.
(Reporting by Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru and Arriana McLymore in New York City; editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
– From Reuters, staff and wire reports
