Brewing change: The impact of the 2023 Starbucks boycotts on the labor movement

Early last month, Starbucks Workers United organized what it described was the largest work stoppage in Starbucks history.

Thousands of workers at more than 200 Starbucks locations nationwide went on strike on “Red Cup Day,” an annual promotion that’s also one of the most infamously understaffed days for the coffee chain’s baristas. Aptly called “Red Cup Rebellion,” the day-long strike drew attention to mounting criticisms of Starbucks’ unfair labor practices and union-busting efforts.

Starbucks Workers United — the union representing Starbucks baristas — has been at the forefront of a compressive campaign against the coffee corporation for the past two years. The union previously scheduled a nationwide Day of Action on Sept. 14 to urge “customers and allies to join the fight” to get Starbucks to “respect workers’ fundamental right to organize and bargain a fair contract,” per The Guardian. Last year, unionized workers also went on strike on “Red Cup Day.”

After winning its first representation vote at a New York-based Starbucks store, Starbucks Workers United has won more votes at 368 company-operated stores in more than 41 states. The union is seeking to tackle a slew of worker issues, including short staffing, low wages, unaffordable healthcare, unfair discipline, workplace favoritism, unpredictable schedules and more. Starbucks, however, has yet to reach a collective bargaining agreement with any of the stores that have voted to unionize.

As of recently, the union is in talks about when and whether to initiate a consumer boycott of Starbucks, as more people are cutting ties with the corporation and its goods. Supporters argued that a boycott would “aim to use consumer power to pressure Starbucks to stop its union-busting and illegal actions and to finally negotiate its first union contract,” The Guardian further explained.

Calls for a consumer boycott intensified after students at Cornell University began pushing the administration to cancel its contract with Starbucks in May, when Starbucks announced it would shut down two union stores located in Ithaca, New York. The university announced in August that it will stop serving Starbucks products at its dining facilities at the end of June 2025.

The University of Washington and the University of California are also planning on rolling out similar campaigns to pressure their administration to stop serving Starbucks on-campus, a Starbucks Workers United spokesperson told Higher Ed Dive.

Mass boycotts against Starbucks have also been fueled by social media in the wake of Israel war with Hamas. In an effort to stand in solidarity with Palestine, protestors are targeting major corporations, like Starbucks, which have publicly stood by their pro-Israel stance. In October, Starbucks sued Starbucks Workers United over a post the union made on X that said “Solidarity with Palestine” following the Oct. 7 attack. Starbucks claimed the post angered several of its loyal customers and damaged its reputation. Workers United, in turn, filed its own lawsuit, saying Starbucks defamed the union by suggesting that it supports terrorism and violence.

TikTok data obtained by NBC News shows that the use of the hashtag “#boycottstarbucks” peaked in early November but remains on the rise. The hashtag has been used on 7,000 TikTok videos in the United States this past month, with a combined 51 million views.

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The boycotts coupled with employee strikes have hit Starbucks hard. Starbucks lost over $11 billion in value this last quarter and unsuccessfully attempted to bounce back during Red Cup Day. The company has since seen its market share crash by 8.96 percent, which equates to a nearly $11 billion loss, the lowest Starbucks has experienced since 1992, according to Newsweek.

Consumer boycotts are continuing to take place alongside on-the-ground protests around the world. Dozens of Howard University students gathered outside a Starbucks in Washington, D.C., to write pro-Palestine messages with chalk on sidewalks. Videos across social media also show protesters assembling outside various Starbucks locations, chanting, “Starbucks Starbucks you can’t hide, you make drinks for genocide!”

According to The Guardian, some labor experts claim Starbucks is the country’s most “notorious union buster” since JP Stevens, one of the biggest firms in the American textile industry that launched an anti-union campaign in the 1960s and 1970s. Following a nationwide boycott launched against Stevens by the textile workers union in 1976, the company finally signed a union contract four years later.

Starbucks said in November that it would raise hourly pay for its U.S. retail workers by at least 3% from 2024, Reuters reported. Starbucks has also reached out to Starbucks Workers United in an effort to resolve tensions with its frontline employees, according to a letter obtained by the outlet.