Over 1,000 Starbucks Baristas Strike In Protest Of New Dress Code – CoffeeTalk

More than 1,000 Starbucks baristas at 75 US stores have gone on strike since Sunday to protest a new company dress code. The dress code requires employees at company-operated and licensed stores in the U.S. and Canada to wear a solid black shirt and khaki, black or blue denim bottoms. Starbucks said the new rules would make its green aprons stand out and create a sense of familiarity for customers as it tries to establish a warmer, more welcoming feeling in its stores.

Starbucks Workers United, the union representing workers at 570 of Starbucks’ 10,000 company-owned U.S. stores, said the dress code should be subject to collective bargaining. Starbucks has lost its way in implementing a restrictive new dress code, and customers don’t care about the color of their clothes when they’re waiting 30 minutes for a latte. Starbucks also criticized the company for selling styles of Starbucks-branded clothing that employees no longer are allowed to wear to work on an internal website. Starbucks said it would give two free black T-shirts to each employee when it announced the new dress code.

Starbucks said the strike was having a limited impact on its 10,000 company-operated U.S. stores and that it would be more productive if the union would put the same effort into coming back to the table to finalize a reasonable contract. Starbucks Workers United has been unionizing U.S. stores since 2021, but the union has yet to reach a contract agreement.

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