Starbucks workers 'Strike for Pride' against decor restrictions, corporate pushes back

One of the nation's most recognizable coffee brands is in a cup of hot water once again.

Workers at Iowa City’s Starbucks location went on strike Friday, June 30, in step with a week-long, nationwide effort by the Starbucks Workers United union to protest the company’s labor practices and policies. The union alleges Starbucks forbade the display of pride decorations and flags in its stores during LGBTQ+ Pride Month throughout June.

More than 150 locations participated in the Starbucks Workers United’s Strike for Pride event, according to the union’s website.

The Seattle-based coffee giant refuted the claims in a statement provided to the Press-Citizen on Wednesday, saying the union used fearmongering to build more support for their efforts.

Employees at Iowa City's Starbucks location voted unanimously in May to unionize, becoming the first location in the state to do so.

Employees 'frustrated' with company restrictions

Abigail Scheppmann has worked as a barista for Starbucks since 2019 and has been at the Iowa City location for a year and a half. She said last week's strike opposed Starbucks' nationwide policy which restricted stores from displaying Pride decorations.

“We were told that this year we wouldn't be able to put up any pride decorations [and] even just a little flag wasn’t allowed," Scheppmann said. "Which is weird because in the past we've been able to decorate and celebrate our community,”

The Iowa City location continues to sell Pride-themed cups and other merchandise, which Scheppmann said was “interesting” given the messages provided to her and her fellow employees.

She said many of Starbucks’ workers are members of the LGBTQ+ community, and their frustrations led to Friday’s strike.

Local protests part of a larger national campaign

The Workers United Union organized various protests across the nation, alleging that Starbucks had attempted “to silence” workers in the LGBTQ+ community. Employees at two Starbucks locations in Madison, Wisconsin, also confirmed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that management had asked workers to remove pride decorations from their stores.

Videos posted to the union’s TikTok account also allegedly show Pride flags being removed at locations and a customer returning their drink after seeing a Pride flag being taken down.

Starbucks Workers United claimed reasoning for removing Pride decorations and flags has been inconsistent between stores, saying that not all customers feel represented under the “umbrella of pride” or that the decorations would interfere with the general consistency across all Starbucks locations.

“The decor was a show of pride of identity and defiance of bigotry,” Matt Cartwright, an employee at the company’s Madison location, said in a statement released by Starbucks Workers United. “In the same way Starbucks rejects Democracy by suppressing its workers from organizing, it has betrayed and turned its back on queer workers, putting cowardice and greed over partners.”

Starbucks says 'no change' has been made to company policies

Starbucks' policy has not changed regarding the display of Pride decorations within its stores, the company said in a statement provided to the Press-Citizen.

“We continue to encourage our store leaders to celebrate with their communities, including for U.S. Pride month in June, as we always have,” Laxman Narasimhan, the Starbucks CEO, said in the statement.

The company said it did not pull any Pride merchandise from stores and has not altered its policies regarding the celebration of Pride Month. "Any allegations that these policies have been altered within some locations are being taken seriously within the company," the statement read.

In mid-June, Starbucks’ Vice President for Partner Affairs May Jensen wrote to union president Lynne Fox, chastising the union for spreading misinformation regarding a ban on Pride displays in all Starbucks stores.

“It is disgraceful that Workers United would take a month of celebration, reflection, self-esteem, self-worth, and yes – PRIDE – that means so much to so many of our 235,000 partners across the country and use it to fearmonger and sow division and hate,” Jensen wrote. “It is willfully and recklessly false to claim that Starbucks is anything other than a fully supportive ally of this community that makes up a significant part of our workforce.”

Jensen also wrote that "fearmongering" is being used as a tactic by Workers United to drum up support for unionization rather than making true claims about events at Starbucks locations.

The company also refuted claims that they have not engaged in faithful bargaining, saying that Workers United had only responded “to 25% of the more than 450 bargaining sessions Starbucks has proposed for individual stores.”

No alterations will be made to the company’s gender-affirming care coverage, the company also said in the statement. The additional coverage was introduced in 2013 and expanded in 2018 to include hair transplants, breast augmentation and other procedures. Workers United has claimed those rights would be under attack without a collective bargaining agreement.

More: Downtown Iowa City Starbucks employees make history as first store in Iowa to unionize

Continued staffing issues also fuel protest

Since the Iowa City store unionized in May, workers have seen their hours cut, Scheppmann said, though she said it is impossible to tell whether the two are related. Business at the downtown store slows during the summer when University of Iowa students are away, Scheppmann said. However, she still feels necessary staffing has fallen short.

“We've been to the point on many days where we have so few people working that it's just almost impossible to get done everything that we need to get done and still be on our feet at the end of the day,” Scheppmann said.

Starbucks refuses to enter contract negotiations with the worker’s union, Scheppmann said, instead attempting to bargain on a store-to-store basis. A notion that also influenced Friday’s demonstration.

“I think it just came out of this building anger that we're not allowed to celebrate our community, or even show them support,” Scheppmann said. “It's really inspiring to see how many stores are willing to come together and say, ‘We're not going to let anyone tell us that we can’t support our community.’”

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.com or on Twitter @ryanhansen01.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: IC Starbucks workers strike for Pride; Company says policies unchanged