On Sunday, picketers in front of a Starbucks on South Broadway in Denver approached customers as they entered the store’s drive-thru, discussed the national strike against the coffee chain, and persuaded many to leave without making a purchase. ,
About a dozen people paced the sidewalk and approached cars in front of the Broadway store, carrying signs like “No Contract? No Starbucks.”
During a half-hour period starting at about 11 a.m., two cars out of about 10 that were heading into the store’s parking lot turned around and left after the drivers talked with union supporters who approached their cars with flyers.
Later, about half the cars approaching the drive-thru left without buying a latte or anything, said Clarence Mills, one of the leaders of the Labor Committee of the Denver Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
DSA organized Sunday’s action — and about two hundred similar events — at the national level with Starbucks Workers United, which represents striking Starbucks workers.
“By the end, we were turning away over half the cars entering the drive-thru,” said Mills. “We were a little bit surprised by how receptive people were. Most customers who were willing to talk to us left. And if they weren’t going to turn around, many said they wouldn’t buy Starbucks again until the strike is resolved.”
Starbucks says the strike, which began Nov. 13 when 1,000 workers from 65 stores left their jobs, is ineffective, and the company “offers the best job in retail.” The company says it was the union that abandoned the bargaining table.
“As we’ve said, 99% of our 17,000 U.S. locations remain open and welcoming customers —including many the union publicly stated would strike but never closed or have since reopened,” said Jaci Anderson, a spokesperson for Starbucks, in a statement. “Regardless of the union’s plans, we do not anticipate any meaningful disruption. When the union is ready to return to the bargaining table, we’re ready to talk. The facts are clear. Starbucks offers the best job in retail, with pay and benefits averaging $30 per hour for hourly partners. People choose to work here and stay here—our turnover is less than half the industry average, and we receive more than a million job applications every year.”
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About 640 of Starbucks’ 18,300 cafes in the U.S. and Canada have been unionized since 2021, including 18 stores in Colorado. Despite the hundreds of union votes, workers have been unable to negotiate a contract with Starbucks, which is widely seen as engaging in illegal tactics to block the union. So far in Colorado, workers walked out at stores in Colorado Springs and Lafayette, with more expected to follow, according to The Denver Post, which published on Sunday an investigation into multiple issues involved in the strike.
Mills hopes the economic impact of the strike will “get Starbucks to return to the bargaining table.” Another purpose of Sunday’s action — and others like it — is to encourage broader solidarity with unions, he said.
RELATED: Partners, a short documentary film about the “Starbucks workers’ historic union campaign,” will premiere in Denver on Wednesday, Dec. 8, at the Buntport Theater.
UPDATE: 11/26 a statement from Starbucks was added.
