Business
150 Starbucks Stores Workers To Go On Strike Over Pride Month Decorations
(CTN NEWS) – A dispute over the coffee chain’s policy for Pride displays in stores has caused workers at roughly 150 unionised Starbucks locations in the United States to go on strike on Friday.
According to Starbucks (SBUX) Workers United, the union for organised outlets, the company has banned Pride month displays in some locations, showing “hypocritical treatment of LGBTQIA+ workers.”
Starbucks Vehemently Refuted Assertion
Approximately 3,500 workers “will be on strike over the course of the next week,” according to a tweet from Starbucks Workers United.
As long as the decorations follow safety regulations, store managers are free to decorate their locations however they like for Pride and other heritage months.
According to Starbucks, none of the company’s outlets have a policy against Pride decorations.
The business also mentioned how other establishments had posted pictures of their Pride decorations on social media.
“We firmly stand for the LGBTQIA2+ community. A Starbucks representative stated, “We’re profoundly disturbed by the misleading information that is being circulated.
There has been no change to any policy on this topic, and we continue to encourage our store leaders to celebrate with their communities, particularly for US Pride month in June.
Based on internal papers and shop manager testimony, the union countered on Twitter that the company’s “own responses have not been consistent”.
Local leaders are given freedom by Starbucks to ‘create methods to celebrate.’ The statement made reference to an article stating that Pride decorations were prohibited from roughly 100 venues throughout areas of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri.
“These leaders are the same ones issuing many of the Pride bans,” it claimed. Those areas are located in some of the more conservative parts of the bitterly divided US. Numerous Starbucks stores around the nation have Pride decorations up.
https://twitter.com/SBWorkersUnited/status/1671665142793400320
According to Starbucks Workers United, this is an instance of Starbucks caving in to criticism, just like Target did when it relocated or took Pride-related products out of some shops.
This year, Pride has turned into a political flashpoint as the right has criticised businesses for hosting the inclusive events.
Starbucks Corporate Taken Down Their Pride Decorations
However, Starbucks Corporate has not altered any merchandising or other regulations, even if some individual managers have taken down their Pride decorations.
The Seattle-based business has a history of progressive employee rules going all the way back to 1988, when same-sex partners were given access to full health insurance.
Two years after allowing employees to choose a name or nickname that is “consistent with their gender identity or expression,” the corporation expanded insurance coverage for gender reassignment surgery in 2013.
However, Starbucks has developed a reputation for being hostile to unionisation.
A National Labour Relations Board adjudicator alleged in March that Starbucks had engaged in “egregious and widespread misconduct” in its interactions with workers who were trying to organise locations in Buffalo, New York.
Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, had been a prominent opponent of unions.
According to Schultz, “I don’t think a union has a place in Starbucks,” Poppy Harlow of CNN reported. Employees have the opportunity to “file for a petition to be unionised. However, the firm has the right to assert that it has a superior alternative vision.
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