Dallas, TX: Starbucks workers begin strike

Dallas, TX – On November 13, Starbucks workers who are represented by Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), began and open-ended strike over unfair labor practices they say that Starbucks has committed. The SBWU workers say that Starbucks has been unwilling to bargain in good faith to reach a first contract with the newly formed union.

The strike is nationwide, and the timing coincided with Starbucks’ “Red Cup Day,” which the company uses as the launch of its holiday season. In response, the union has launched what it is calling a Red Cup Rebellion, an open-ended strike of over 1000 baristas demanding better staffing, higher pay and resolution for hundreds of unfair labor practice charges. The strike began with 65 stores on November 13, but the union says if needed it could extend the strike to over 550 stores across the country.

In Dallas, SBWU baristas and allies launched picket lines across the DFW Metro Plex. At a Starbucks location in Valley View, Farmers Branch, SBWU workers joined the strike on Thursday, and continued pickets on Friday, November 15 and Saturday, November 15. The picket was attended by various groups including Teamsters from Local 767, members of the Young Active Labor Leaders, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Rayne Mele is a Starbucks worker and had this to say, “Our strike is definitely making an impact. Every day we come up here and meet early up in the morning, we chant we bring people’s attention to our strike, we have more people joining our picket line. We have people getting out of the Starbucks drive through line we’re picketing at. We’re not numbers on a screen we are actual people coming here and making a difference”. 

As the day closed out store workers and supporters could be heard loudly chanting. Some of their chants included “No contract, no coffee,” “No workers, no Starbucks, and “2, 4, 6, 8! Starbucks come negotiate! 3, 5, 7, 9! Don’t cross that picket line.”

Starbucks Workers United says that they intend to continue striking until Starbucks brings an offer to the table that they can accept for a first union contract.

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