Johnathan Walker:Starbucks Red Cup Day is sheer stress for workers. We're going on strike because of it.

Starbucks recently announced 3% raises and Johnathan Walkera host of benefit changes for its nonunion workers starting next year. The move was a direct result of union organizing by thousands of workers across the country, who are joining together to demand more from the world’s biggest coffeehouse chain. 

Starbucks trumpeted the raises in news releases and in a presentation to investors, as it announced record fourth quarter revenue. But the announcement was tone deaf on two fronts.

First, it excluded union workers like me from the increases. Second, it’s clear company officials haven’t paid attention to the news: They offered 3% when auto workers just won 25% pay raises after weeks of striking.

As United Auto Workers members said throughout their strike, record profits should mean record contracts. If Starbucks executives think we’re settling for 3%, when auto workers, health care workers and others are winning much more, they are kidding themselves. 

You’d think we’d receive more from Starbucks when our hard work helped the company hit record fourth quarter revenue numbers. Unfortunately, this is par for the course for a multibillion dollar corporation notorious for its aggressive stance against its workers. Even while touting a commitment to us as partners. 

My team and I love the work we do for our community and have only ever wanted the tools to do our jobs well without having to sacrifice our health or well-being. But since the COVID-19 pandemic, short staffing at our store has made it extremely difficult to do that, especially when we’re expected to make drive-through orders, walk-up orders, mobile orders and delivery orders – all while keeping our front of house stocked and clean.

For years, Starbucks workers have raised alarms about understaffing, inconsistent scheduling and low wages that have left us burned out and exhausted while the company rakes in millions in profits. As a shift supervisor at Starbucks’s Hanley & Dale store in St. Louis, Missouri, I’ve seen and experienced the toll this takes on not just the baristas, but our customers, too. 

It’s hard enough to do this with a fully staffed store, but more often than not, we’re expected to manage all of this with a skeleton crew of three people or fewer on the floor.

I frequently have to skip lunch breaks and work late to ensure my co-workers have the support they need. Still, it’s not enough to mitigate the immense stress we’re under, or our customers’ frustration at growing wait times during peak hours.

Imagine this stress on one of the busiest customer traffic days of the year for Starbucks stores. 

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Workers overwhelmed by Red Cup Day demands

On Starbucks promotion days like Red Cup Day, there is no additional staffing to cover the influx of orders that baristas have to handle. Though it’s advertised as a joyful occasion for our loyal customers, who get to snag one of the free reusable branded cups handed out that day, it’s far from merry for us. 

Red Cup Day too often means defeat for employees and customers alike – with overworked and exhausted baristas and customers angry as they wait while workers try to fulfill orders as fast as possible. Drink orders pile up, lines back up and the supply of red cups runs out.

By the end of the day, everyone feels deluded. And Starbucks walks away with a bulging bottom line. Our customers deserve better, and they deserve to know what’s happening behind the scenes.  

Despite the progressive values it espouses, Starbucks has long dismissed workers’ calls for better staffing and consistent schedules that would let us thrive instead of scrambling to stay afloat. Instead of listening to our nationwide appeals for additional support for promotional days like these, Starbucks continues to exacerbate our working conditions by scheduling promotion after promotion without increasing staffing.

And rather than give back to the baristas fueling its business, the coffee giant has concentrated its efforts on deterring workers from pursuing a better life through their efforts to form a union. In fact, since Starbucks workers joined a union at their first store in 2021, the company has led a fierce anti-union campaign against its workers, myself included, who are merely fighting for basic rights that would allow them to carry out their jobs in a safe and inclusive workplace. 

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Starbucks can't ignore Red Cup Day strike

Because Starbucks refuses to listen to our demands, my co-workers and I will join thousands of Starbucks baristas at hundreds of stores across the nation Thursday on Red Cup Day in a strike that the company won’t be able to ignore.

In addition to demanding that Starbucks turn off mobile ordering on future promotion days, we’ll call on the company to bargain with us for the adequate staffing and schedules we deserve.

This week’s “Red Cup Rebellion” will ensure Starbucks hears our demands loud and clear: It’s time to share the wealth with the workers who keep the profits and coffee flowing.

Moe Mills is a shift supervisor at Starbucks’ Hanley & Dale store in St. Louis, Missouri.