Striking Starbucks workers swarmed one ºüÀêÊÓƵ-area store and visited others Thursday, disrupting business and blocking off would-be customers during one of the company’s busiest days, its annual “Red Cup Day†promotional event that features giveaways of free, reusable, holiday-themed cups. The local protests were part of a nationwide movement.
The bulk of Thursday’s protest activity was centered at the Starbucks location on ºüÀêÊÓƵ’ South Grand Boulevard, near Tower Grove Park. There, workers from unionized Starbucks stores converged to chant and wield signs, while marching across the entrances for cars to access the store’s property — choking off its parking lot and drive-thru lane.
“They’ve got to sit down and bargain with us. It’s been a year,†said Sam Maurer, an employee of the unionized Starbucks store in Valley Park. “It definitely doesn’t feel good, not getting to practice what we voted for.â€
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Since June 2022, votes to unionize have passed at eight Starbucks locations around the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area. But workers at those locations are still without a unionized contract, and said Thursday that the company has not come to the table. Starbucks Workers United organized the national protests, and said more than 200 stores participated.
The company said in a statement attributed to spokesman Andrew Trull that fewer than 100 stores joined the protest, and “Starbucks remains ready to progress in-person negotiations with the unions certified to represent partners.â€
Many at Thursday’s protest said that they or their colleagues must juggle multiple jobs to get by, and that it is a struggle to get enough hours to hit an eligibility threshold for health-care benefits and more.
Additionally, many of the protesters said their Starbucks workplaces are chronically understaffed, with sometimes as few as three employees to a shift — creating a situation where they are unable to take breaks.
They also accused the company of “union-busting†maneuvers, such as hiring employees as “pre-managers†— a position that does not technically qualify as one eligible for union membership or protections.
“Stores are getting busier, hours are getting cut,†said Lee Martin, a shift supervisor at the Grand location. “The company believes that we are expendable, and they treat us as such.
“They’re sacrificing our health and well-being,†Martin said.
A target of the protesters’ Thursday morning push, the Starbucks on Grand appeared to close early. By 10:15 a.m., the lights were turned off in the public portion of the store, and no employees were behind the counter.
And the effort attracted different displays of solidarity, eliciting honks from many cars breezing down Grand, and also drawing some support from union members in other fields who stopped by to join the cause, during their lunch breaks.
“All workers deserve fairness, dignity and respect,†said Dan Szyman, a unionized employee of the John J. Cochran Veterans Hospital, who joined the Starbucks picketing.
Some called attention to the company’s profits as a sign that the requests from workers are feasible.
“Starbucks can afford it,†said April Williams, another hospital worker who came out to join the protest on her own time. “We’re going to be here until change takes place.â€
Organizers of Thursday’s protest said that more than 360 Starbucks locations across the U.S. have voted to unionize but that none has been given a contract by the company. And more unionized stores could be on the way, as some striking workers spent part of the morning visiting other, non-unionized Starbucks locations around the area, to distribute information.