Metro Phoenix Starbucks Workers Strike on Red Cup Day

Starbucks' Red Cup Day, where red Starbucks cups are handed out in celebration of the holidays, is a flagship sales event for the coffee behemoth.

This year, the company's employees — in the midst of a nationwide union drive — had other ideas. To protest working conditions and management's hedging on bargaining with the fledgling union, they launched a daylong strike.

In metro Phoenix, which was an early epicenter of the Starbucks union effort, workers from at least two stores — one in Mesa and another in Avondale — joined the picket line, part of an effort that took place at more than 100 stores nationally.

Michelle Hejduk has worked at Starbucks for five years. For the past two and a half, she has been employed at the Starbucks location on the corner of Power and Baseline roads in east Mesa.

The coffeehouse, tucked in the corner of the busy intersection, was the third Starbucks shop in the country to successfully vote to unionize. It was the first to do so outside of Buffalo, New York — an effort that helped cement the Starbucks union effort as a national movement. "We were watching what was happening in Buffalo, and we watched the company say that this is a Buffalo issue," Hejduk recalled. Workers in Mesa realized they could prove that wrong.

"Strike while the iron is hot, right? And our iron has never cooled down," Hejduk said.

Strike Forced Some Stores to Close

On Thursday, as other Starbucks stores opened their doors for Red Cup Day, the east Mesa location was shuttered after employees, including Hejduk, walked out. "We completely shut it down for the day," she said. Managers who had arrived in the morning asking whether workers would be coming in were soon posting signs that read "closed" and left.

When a reporter visited on Thursday afternoon, employees were taking a respite from the picket line. Faux red cups — adorned with the logo of Starbucks Workers United, the national Starbucks union — were stacked on a table outside. As customers arrived and found the store closed, workers offered them their red cups instead.

Starbucks employees were joined by supporters from other unions and the Phoenix branch of the Democratic Socialists of America. Jakob Membrila, who has worked at the Power and Baseline store for several months, said it was heartening to see how workers "have each other's backs."

‘I Gotta Admire that Level of Pettiness’

While the effort to unionize Starbucks has seen some successes, it has faced challenges, too. The corporate giant has tried to quell union efforts, including at locations in the Valley. The company fired Phoenix organizer Laila Dalton after she led a union effort at a Scottsdale store. In May, CEO Howard Schultz announced a slate of new benefits — including wage hikes and allowing customers to tip with a credit card — but only at stores that were not unionized.

It was "really infuriating," Membrila said, though he added, "I gotta admire that level of pettiness." Hejduk and Membrila said that with fewer tips and lower wages, working conditions were already subpar at the store. But management also slashed the hours that were available to work, they said, making it difficult for workers to qualify for certain benefits, such as Starbucks' tuition coverage program with ASU.

A Starbucks spokesperson said the corporation was committed to "make Starbucks a company that works for everyone."

"We respect their right to engage in lawful protest activity — though our focus has been, and continues to be, on uplifting the Starbucks experience for our partners and customers," Andrew Trull wrote in a statement to New Times.

Hejduk said the meager benefits are one reason she believed the organizing effort can improve conditions at Starbucks. She was a key leader in organizing the Power and Baseline store ahead of the union vote in February and has been deeply involved with the bargaining process as Starbucks Workers United attempts to negotiate a contract for union members. More than 250 stores are now represented by Workers United, according to the union.

Starbucks: We're Negotiating in Good Faith

It has been a difficult process. Starbucks workers and union leaders, including Hejduk, have reported that attorneys for Starbucks spend hours focused on minutiae, leave before actual bargaining begins, or simply refuse to attend bargaining sessions at all.

Starbucks denied those claims. "Counter to what the union has shared, Starbucks has continued to engage Workers United representatives in a good faith effort to move the bargaining process forward," Trull wrote. The company has plans to attend dozens of bargaining sessions in the coming weeks, he added.

Hejduk rejected the idea that Starbucks was trying to bargain in good faith. "[Starbucks] is really refusing to bargain," she said. "They're doing whatever they need to do to squash this campaign."

It hasn't been able to yet.