Starbucks union calls for workers to strike over unproven claims company banned Pride decorations

Starbucks Workers United called for employees at Starbucks' Seattle locations to go on strike Friday after perpetuating an unproven claim — which has been explicitly denied on the record by the coffee giant — that the company banned Pride decorations from its store. The union, which has been pushing for the unionization of Starbucks locations and is currently negotiating labor contracts, appears to be browbeating the company to cave to its demands.

The union noted that another 150 locations have pledged to join the walkout.

According to the union, Starbucks has taken down and prohibited its stores from displaying pro-LBGT decorations during Pride Month; however, little evidence has been presented to support those allegations.

Last week, Starbucks Workers United took to Twitter to announce that the coffee chain was "no longer allowing Pride decorations in-store," marking the "first year the publicly 'pro-LGBTQ+' company has taken this kind of stance."

The union accused Starbucks of "taking a cue from Target, who bowed to anti-LGBTQ+ pressure" after Target faced calls for boycotts when customers discovered it was selling LGBT-themed children's apparel and "tuck-friendly" swimwear.

Last week, Starbucks denied the union's rumors that Pride decorations had been banned from its stores.

"There has been no change to any policy on this matter and we continue to encourage our store leaders to celebrate with their communities including for U.S. Pride month in June," a spokesperson for the company stated.

An alleged Starbucks internal memo titled "Misinformation About Pride Decorations in Stores," obtained by the union and shared on social media earlier this week, called the alleged ban "false information."

"This is simply not true," the memo stated.

In response to the memo, the union said that Starbucks "gaslit workers, managers, AND the public." It complained that the company "gives autonomy to local leaders to 'find ways to celebrate'" and that "these leaders are the same ones issuing many of the Pride bans."

So far, the extent of the union's evidence of a Pride decoration ban has consisted of testimonials from disgruntled workers and an alleged note from an Oklahoma City manager claiming that "regional level" leadership reached a decision not to decorate for Pride Month last year.

On Friday, Starbucks Workers United announced that employees at over 150 Starbucks locations, representing approximately 3,500 workers, plan to strike over the alleged Pride decoration ban.

"STRIKE WITH PRIDE!" the union wrote on Twitter. "Seattle Roastery leads nationwide Starbucks strike over Starbucks' hypocritical treatment of LGBTQIA+ workers. Over 150+ stores and 3,500 workers will be on strike over the course of the next week."

The union told CNBC that another two dozen Starbucks locations are voting on a strike authorization, and as many as 200 locations could join the walkout by the end of the week.

The union also admitted that strikes are partly due to stalled contract negotiations between the parties. It accused Starbucks of intentionally slowing down negotiation talks, but the company claimed the union only replied to a quarter of the more than 450 proposed bargaining sessions.

"Good faith bargaining looks like both sides providing proposals and trying to meet in the middle — Starbucks is not willing to do that," the union said. "Despite having our non-economic proposals for over 8 months and our economic proposals for over a month now, Starbucks has failed to tentatively agree to a single line of a single proposal or provide a single counter proposal. What Starbucks is doing is not bargaining, it's stalling."

Starbucks told CNBC, "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."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!