Starbucks employee walkouts are justified in advocating better treatment for retail and minimum wage workers.
On Red Cup Day—a promotional event during which Starbucks gifts its customers reusable, red, holiday-themed cups with their purchases—Starbucks employees across the United States walked off the job in protest of their long hours and insufficient staffing.
Workers in stores, restaurants, and cafes remain on their feet for several hours at a time. In addition to this physical labour, they have the emotional labour and responsibility of interacting with customers.
The holiday season can be a particularly unpleasant time to work in retail. Promotional events put on by retailers and events in the lives of shoppers lead not only to increased volumes of customers, but to increasingly tense customers. As a result, retail employees are subject to heavier workloads and more aggression from shoppers during the holiday season. Aligning their demonstration with Red Cup Day accurately conveys the burden Starbucks employees face.
Starbucks isn’t only unaccommodating of its workers’ needs during the holiday season. Allegedly, employees in American and Canadian Starbucks have been subject to pronounced anti-union activity in their workplaces.
Unions benefit their by protecting their rights and interests, such as health benefits and fair wages. All employees deserve to know their rights are being honoured in their workplaces.
Starbucks discouraging their workers from unionizing while simultaneously dismissing their complaints evinces a total disregard for their employees. Despite having recently seen an 11 per cent increase in revenue, the company only raised wages by three per cent in 2023.
The coffee franchise’s behaviour isn’t unique. Large companies, those who could most easily afford to offer living wages, prefer to short-change their employees and maximize revenue instead.
Both companies and consumers owe customer service workers more humanity.
—Journal Editorial Board
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