Starbucks workers strike to unionize

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More than 2,000 workers at 112 Starbucks locations across the United States joined the first nationwide strike that lasted one day, in a year-long attempt at unionization. The coffee company owns roughly 9,000 locations in the United States with over 70,000 employees. The Starbucks employees walked off the job on Nov. 17, hoping to shut down shops as they protested the coffee chain’s approach to union contract negotiations, at the start of its profitable holiday season. Striking workers called the walkout the “Red Cup Rebellion,” which spread across 25 states, covering 112 stores in cities like Seattle, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Eugene, and Ann Arbor.

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It was the first organized nationwide strike at the company, with previous walkouts lasting from a few hours to more than 20 days and only consisting of a few local stores at a time. The leaders of Starbucks Workers United, an affiliate of Workers United of the Service Employees International Union, have been organizing stores for the last year.

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Some Democrat politicians like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are major supporters of the union organizers and strikers. “I’m proud to stand with Starbucks workers on strike today across the country. CEO Howard Schultz is illegally union busting and firing workers for organizing. Mr. Schultz, it is time to recognize the stores that unionized and negotiate with workers in good faith,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.),

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