Lancaster Starbucks baristas join nationwide Red Cup Rebellion

Starbucks baristas at unionized locations across Pennsylvania walked off the job on the coffee giant’s busiest day of the year.

Baristas from the East Lampeter Starbucks in Lancaster County successfully shut down their store on Thursday as part of the “Red Cup Rebellion” strike that took place at unionized Starbucks locations across the country. 

“ We’re out here because we are done with Starbucks stalling on bargaining,” Ash Haldeman, a four-year Starbucks barista and barista trainer, told The Keystone in an interview.

“We want them to approach us at the table again. They keep lying and saying that we walked away, but we walked away because they gave us a horrible economic proposal.”

The strike coincides with Red Cup Day, a yearly Starbucks tradition that started in 2018 and has grown into one of the company’s busiest days each year, when the giant coffee company gives customers a free, red holiday-themed and reusable coffee cup to start the season. 

However, employees at the Lancaster location plan to continue picketing outside of the store through Monday.

“We’re ready for them to offer us new proposals and get this contract done, which is 90% finished, by the way, and it only is gonna cost less than a day’s worth of profit,” Haldeman added.

According to a recent report from the Center for American Progress, Starbucks Workers United (SWU), the union organizing the baristas across the country, represents 14,000 Starbucks employees at roughly 650 locations across the US. 

Starbucks baristas are demanding more staff and better hours to combat growing wait times, higher wages, and a resolution to more than 700 unfair labor practices SWU filed against the company. 

In Pennsylvania, there are 45 unionized Starbucks locations that are mostly located in the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Lancaster regions. 

A recent report from the AFL-CIO tracking CEO pay across the country found that Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol earns 6,666 times more than the average Starbucks employee. According to the AFL-CIO, “high CEO-to-worker pay ratios contribute to economic inequality” and “undermine employee morale and productivity.”

“The CEO makes a lot of money that figures out that it’s 6,666 times more than an average barista, which an average barista makes in most of the states $15.20,” Haldeman said.