On Wednesday, June 28, workers at the 1085 W. 5th Ave. Starbucks store will be on an unfair labor practice strike to demand that Starbucks meet the partners at the bargaining table to negotiate a fair contract. The workers are also calling on the Company to end its attacks on LGBTQIA+ workers as part of its relentless union-busting campaign that includes threatening workers’ access to benefits and refusing to let partners put up pride decorations at dozens of stores across the country. 

“We’re going on strike to demand that Starbucks stop performatively using trans and queer workers for PR and profit, and to meet us at the bargaining table so we can agree on a fair contract. They can’t rip our flag down and tell us they still stand with us while the company caves to pressures from the far-right. Trans and Queer workers make Starbucks run, and by refusing to bargain with us for a contract, the company is showing that they will put profit, and themselves, over the workers,” said Shenby G. (they/she) a barista.

Starbucks claims to be a company that cares about its LGBTQIA+ workers. Yet in reality, they are tokenizing workers for good press and higher profits. Workers are fighting back against Starbucks’ performative allyship and demanding the company respect their rights by negotiating in good faith at the bargaining table. 

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is currently prosecuting the company for failing to bargain in good faith with workers. So far, in 15 favorable decisions out of 16, NLRB judges have found that Starbucks committed 161 federal labor law violations, including 19 unlawful discharges. The federal government is currently prosecuting Starbucks for approximately 75 complaints, encompassing over 200 charges and alleging over 1300 violations, including 77 discharges. This makes the Coffee Giant the worst violator of labor law in modern U.S. history. 

Starbucks Workers United is the union drive that has taken the labor movement by storm. Since December 2021, over 8,000 workers in 320 Starbucks stores in 38 states and the District of Columbia have successfully unionized. Starbucks workers have formed more new unions at a single company than any campaign in the 21st century.