Starbucks baristas go on strike following new rule change

More than 1,000 Starbucks baristas across 75 US stores are currently on strike as they challenge the coffee giant's newly implemented dress code,

The new dress code, effective from Monday, restricts what baristas can wear beneath their signature green aprons.

Employees at company-operated and licensed stores in the US and Canada are now required to wear solid black shirts and bottoms limited to khaki, black, or blue denim.

Previously, baristas enjoyed a more relaxed dress code, permitted to wear a wider array of dark colors and patterned shirts.

Starbucks maintains that the updated policy is designed to highlight the green aprons and foster a sense of familiarity for customers, contributing to a warmer, more welcoming atmosphere in its stores.

However, Starbucks Workers United, the union representing workers at 570 of the company's 10,000 company-owned US stores, argues that the dress code should be a subject of collective bargaining.

“Starbucks has lost its way. Instead of listening to baristas who make the Starbucks experience what it is, they are focused on all the wrong things, like implementing a restrictive new dress code,” said Paige Summers, a Starbucks shift supervisor from Hanover, Maryland.

“Customers don’t care what color our clothes are when they’re waiting 30 minutes for a latte.”

Summers and others also criticised the company for selling styles of Starbucks-branded clothing that employees are no longer allowed to wear to work on an internal website. Starbucks said it would give two free black T-shirts to each employee when it announced the new dress code.

Starbucks said Wednesday that the strike was having a limited impact on its 10,000 company-operated US stores.

“Thousands of Starbucks partners came to work this week ready to serve their customers and communities,” the company said in a statement. “It would be more productive if the union would put the same effort into coming back to the table to finalize a reasonable contract.”

Starbucks Workers United has been unionizing US stores since 2021. Starbucks and the union have yet to reach a contract agreement, despite agreeing to return to the bargaining table in February 2024.

The union said this week that it filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board alleging Starbucks' failure to bargain over the new dress code.