Starbucks union employees strike after claims of Pride decoration bans

More than 3,000 Starbucks workers are set to go on strike this week following revelations that some mid-level managers at the coffee giant banned Pride decorations in dozens of stores during Pride month, in defiance of the chain’s pro-LGBTQ+ policy.

As many as 150 stores across the country will participate in Strike with Pride, according to the workers’ union, Starbucks Workers United. The Seattle Roastery, Starbucks’ flagship store in its hometown of Seattle, is the first location to kick off the weeklong wave of strikes. 

Last week, Fast Company reviewed text messages from a store manager that informed employees that the mid-Atlantic leadership team was “leaning toward uniformity in store to create consistent experiences” and adding that “we should refrain from these things because we would have to allow anyone to post/decorate with anything” if Pride decorations are allowed.

Workers have chimed in with examples of the ban—such as a TikTok video of decorations tucked in a bathroom bucket—but none established that Starbucks explicitly enacted a corporate-wide policy forbidding stores from hanging decor. On Reddit, one barista claimed to have been fired after asking permission to hang a Pride flag, then telling the union once management said no.

Last week, a company spokesperson told Fast Company that there is no ban on Pride decorations, and that Starbucks has “unwavering support for the LGBTQIA2+ community.” Among the states where employees have claimed that Pride decor was banned are the very red Southern states as well as those where bills have targeted LGBTQ+ rights—including Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia, Missouri, and Indiana.

“Starbucks is scared of the power that their queer partners hold, and they should be,” Moe Mills, a Starbucks shift supervisor in Richmond Heights, Missouri, said in a union statement. “We’re striking with pride to show the public who Starbucks really is, and to let them know we’re not going anywhere.”

Starbucks did not immediately respond to Fast Company’s request for comment about the strike, but it told the Associated Press: “Workers United continues to spread false information about our benefits, policies, and negotiation efforts—a tactic used to seemingly divide our partners and deflect from their failure to respond to bargaining sessions for more than 200 stores.”

The strike is part of an ongoing battle between Starbucks and its workers’ union, Starbucks Workers United, which has signed up more than 8,000 workers at 330 Starbucks stores since 2021. In the past few years, the National Labor Review Board has unleashed a mountain of complaints and rulings against the chain.