Starbucks Workers United members from across the Chicago area stepped out from behind the counter and onto the picket line to rally for the finalization of a fair union contract with their multi-national employer in Evanston Thursday.
At 4 p.m., over 30 workers and community members alike filled up the Starbucks on Dempster Street’s parking lot with chants, music and solidarity.
The Evanston event was part of a series of “Red Cup Rebellion” rallies in 17 different cities nationwide that kicked off Workers United’s unfair labor practice strike. The rallies fell on Starbucks’ busiest day of the year — Red Cup Day — when customers flock to stores for free reusable red cups with the purchase of a holiday beverage.
“Unfortunately, money speaks to corporations much more than the voices of people at times,” said Kyle Dudley, a barista at the Dempster location. “And so this is a way to send a message to them that if you aren’t willing to listen to what we have to say, there are other ways that we can impact you specifically.”
The Sherman Street Starbucks is unionized, but did not strike on Thursday. The unionized Starbucks location on Main Street closed in September as the company shuttered more than 10 locations across Chicago.
James Maeder, the Dempster location’s bargaining delegate, said aligning the promotion and strike was a way for workers to protest Red Cup Day’s working conditions which are “notorious for just being an awful experience.”
An overwhelming 92% of union members nationwide approved the strike to push for a contract addressing three main concerns, according to the Workers United website. An increase in barista wages, which currently sit at an average of $17 an hour, was one of them, the website stated.
The union is also calling for Starbucks to resolve the more than 700 outstanding unfair labor practice charges. The unfair labor practices range from bad faith bargaining to implementing unilateral policy changes without consulting union representatives, according to the National Labor Relations Board.
In a Nov. 5 public statement, Starbucks Chief Partner Officer Sara Kelly responded to the union’s demands, claiming that workers can make up to $30 an hour with benefits.
However, Dudley said employees at the Dempster location and beyond struggle to secure the 20 weekly hours of work needed to access their benefit packages.
On Monday, more than 100 U.S. representatives and senators wrote to Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol urging him to “reverse course” to finalize a contract in good faith.
At the local level, other regional unions, community residents and Illinois’ 9th Congressional District candidate Kat Abughazaleh attended in solidarity. Strikers’ signs reading “Baristas on Strike” and “No contract? No coffee!” also garnered support from passersby.
“There was a gaper’s delay down Dempster because so many people were pausing to honk their horns at the strikers in support,” Lincoln Square resident Hope Asya said.
Even with community backing, Dudley, the Dempster barista, said, the reality of an indefinite strike with little financial support is scary. However, he realizes that sacrifices now are necessary to ensure better working conditions in the future, he said.
While Starbucks stated that fewer than 4% of their workforce is union-represented, Maeder believes a successful strike would be a victory for all Starbucks baristas and food service workers as a whole.
“Their biggest fear is that all of their workers will see what unionizing, what labor power can bring for you, and how that can bring a living wage and a dignified job at this company,” he said. “They are afraid of having to give that power back.”
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