ST. LOUIS — There's pride at this picket line Monday morning.
Dozens of Starbucks workers hold their heads high, along with their signs.
This week, 150 stores representing nearly 3,500 workers are on strike across the nation, including four in the St. Louis area.
Barista Alexia Fischer works at the Kingshighway and Chippewa location where last year, those employees became a part of the union Starbucks Workers United.
Now, she wants a contract negotiation.
"$20 dollars an hour, an annual raise, health care, more sick and paid vacation time," Fischer said.
Lee Webb is also a barista at a St. Louis County Starbucks. She worries about wages.
"We deserve more, there are people who can't pay their bills," Webb said. "This is after the raise, this is post-raise and we are still struggling."
That's because Webb explains it's a tough job with immense training. He believes that's why there is a high turnover rate.
Both workers are also concerned about Pride decorations potentially being taken down.
Fischer explained there was a huge Pride flag in their store.
"One day they told us to shrink the flag and move it. It was moved to an area where you couldn't really see it. At the end of the day, Starbucks is a corporation regardless how progressive they want to put on a front or not. They want to protect their income," Fischer said.
These allegations come after brands like Target and Bud Light have faced backlash for showing LGBTQ support during Pride Month.
"We were lured into this as a progressive place to work and all of the sudden we can't be these colorful people that we came into the job being, we can't have Pride buttons if they aren't Starbucks specified," Webb added.
Webb said some employees were approached to hide their piercings and tattoos.
"A lot of them were hired with piercings and tattoos and were told to take them out after they were unionized," he said.
While these union members rally for recourse, they also feel like this is a moment to be proud.
"I think this is nice to show solidarity and we're not done fighting for what we want and we're probably never going to be done fighting," Fischer said.
In a statement, a Starbucks spokesperson shared this below:
"Despite good faith efforts to schedule first contract bargaining sessions for each of the nine represented stores in Missouri, Workers United has failed to respond to more than half of the sessions Starbucks has proposed, to-date. Workers United has not made an effort to bargain for four out of the nine stores they represent in Missouri — a disappointing failure by the union to progress bargaining towards the single-store contracts they promised partners. Starbucks representatives appeared in-person and ready to begin negotiations towards a first contract for five stores in Missouri between Nov. 1 and Dec. 20, 2022, but Workers United representatives refused to discuss proposals or bargain without unilateral preconditions. Furthermore, Workers United has failed to respond to any sessions proposed in 2023.
"Additionally, I want to be clear Starbucks has not pulled any Pride merchandise from our stores and have not altered our corporate policies or approach to celebrating Pride Month.
"We unwaveringly support the LGBTQIA2+ community. It is inaccurate to report that Starbucks has issued a ban on Pride decorations as there has been no change to company policy on this matter. We remain deeply concerned by false information being spread about our inclusive store environments, our company culture and the benefits we offer our partners.
“We want to be crystal clear – Starbucks has been and will continue to be at the forefront of supporting the LGBTQIA2+ community, and we will not waver in that commitment! Despite today’s public commentary, there has been no change to any of our policies as it relates to our inclusive store environments, our company culture and the benefits we offer our partners. We continue to encourage our store leaders to celebrate with their communities including for U.S. Pride month in June, as we always have,” Laxman Narasimhan, CEO.
Additional company statement:
"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.”
“We apologize to our customers who may experience an inconvenience at these locations and encourage customers to find any of our more than 9,000 stores open nearby using our store locator available online or through the Starbucks mobile app.”
"Our store leaders remain empowered to decorate their stores for heritage months, including Pride Month. Partners in all U.S. company-owned stores are encouraged to work with their local leaders to find ways to authentically celebrate the diversity of the communities we call home within the framework of our established operational standards, Siren’s Eye appearance guidelines and partner dress code policy.
"On our response to demonstrations at a subset of our represented stores… While we respect the right of our partners to engage in lawful union activities without fear of retaliation, inaccurate information shared by Workers United ignores the facts of the matter and distracts from efforts to move the good faith bargaining process forward.
"We are aware of local demonstrations planned at a small subset of our union-represented stores. At those stores where partners are expected to walkout or strike, we will make every effort to staff the store with partners from nearby locations interested in picking up additional hours. At locations where we are unable to maintain operations due to staffing constraints, we will offer partners wanting to work the opportunity to pick up shifts at other nearby stores.
"I also want to directly address allegations Workers United has made regarding access to gender-affirming care… At no time has Starbucks taken away — or threatened to take away — benefits currently provided to any partner. All partners enrolled in a Starbucks health plan have access to industry-leading gender-affirming care benefits regardless of organizing activity or representation status. Unfounded allegations made by others accusing Starbucks of withholding gender-affirming care from our partners at stores with union activity are both misleading and could deter partners from pursuing essential care.
"In fact, Starbucks recently extended medical travel reimbursement coverage for individuals who are required to travel for access to gender-affirming care. The enhancement, extended to partners regardless of union status, provides any individual enrolled in Starbucks health insurance — including eligible dependents of partners — reimbursement for eligible travel expenses when gender-affirming care is not legally accessible in their state of residence and there are no doctors available within 100 miles of their residence.
"On working to maintain a welcoming Third Place environment for our partners and customers… We are committed to ensuring our partners feel safe and supported at work so they can focus on providing our customers the warm, welcoming Starbucks experience they’ve come to love and expect. We routinely review the partner and customer experience in our stores to ensure the store is thriving, partners feel supported and we are meeting customer needs.
"As such, we expect all our customers to treat each other and our partners with dignity and respect. In the event that a customer does not adhere to these standards, our partners have several resources to support them in navigating the situation responsibly.
"All partners are encouraged to report complaints of bias or discrimination through our incident reporting tool or our confidential Ethics & Compliance hotline for investigation. All claims made and incidents filed are reviewed and appropriate action is taken whenever possible.
"Lastly, on bargaining… Counter to claims made, Starbucks is committed to progress negotiations towards a first contract where union representatives have approached contract bargaining with professionalism and have allowed both parties to discuss proposals.
"Unfortunately, Workers United has only responded to 25% of the more than 450 bargaining sessions Starbucks has proposed for individual stores nationally, to-date. In other words, Workers United has not made an effort to bargain for more than 215 stores they represent — a disappointing failure by the union to progress bargaining towards the single-store contracts they promised partners and successfully argued for before the NLRB, despite Starbucks concerns about the complexity of single-store units.
"Notably, Workers United representatives refused to discuss proposals or bargain for any store they represent without unilateral preconditions, between Oct. 2022 and March 2023. Since March 2023, Starbucks has met union representatives in-person for complete, full-day bargaining sessions in Seattle, Richmond (VA), Greensburg (PA), Pittsburgh, Knoxville (TN), Albany (NY), Philadelphia, Astoria (Queens, NY) and Gardner (MA). We are pleased that Workers United has moved past their unilateral insistence on such preconditions, including hybrid bargaining and virtually broadcasting sessions to unknown parties.
"During every in-person bargaining session held for stores represented by Workers United, Starbucks and Workers United representatives have only reviewed preliminary economic and non-economic proposals — including what Workers United has called their contract “pillars.” At the insistence of Workers United representatives, Starbucks has deferred time to partners while listening to personal stories related to each contract pillar. When Starbucks bargaining representatives have attempted to engage or respond, the union has asked again, and again, that Starbucks refrain from asking questions.
"We hope that our bargaining teams will be afforded the opportunity to discuss the bargaining vision and preliminary proposals presented by Workers United and represented partners during future sessions, ensuring a robust dialogue and productive negotiations related to proposed pillars and other mandatory bargaining subjects. To be clear, however, collective bargaining agreements are complex documents and typically take many months of negotiations to finalize."