Starbucks workers have been engaged in an open-ended strike since November 13th. They are “Turning Red Cup Season into the Red Cup Rebellion!” In April of 2024, barista representatives and Starbucks executives met extensively and generated 33 tentative contract agreements. Yet by December of 2024, Starbucks rejected all of the Barista’s demands and instead put forward an absurd proposal that rejected raises in the first year of the contract and failed to address core issues of hours and staffing. With Starbucks was refusing to bargain in good faith, Starbucks Workers United filed a National Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge. Today about 4000 Starbucks workers are striking across 180 stores in 130 cities. With 17,000 Starbucks Stores in the US with over 200,000 workers, and 38,711 Starbucks globally with about 400,000 workers, the outcome of this strike will have significant ramifications for the corporation and the workers who make it run.
Puntorojo’s Kim Gasper-Rabuck* interviewed striking barista and team lead Atlas Parker at length.
Originally posted on Punto Rojo.
Kim: Could we start by telling me a little about yourself?
Atlas: I am from a small town in Wisconsin. I got my college degree there. I became a mom at age 19. I have an elementary school-aged child, and I am engaged to my girlfriend of seven years. I am also an artist, and I have worked at Starbucks for 5 years.
Kim: Can I ask about your financial situation working as a barista for Starbucks?
Atlas: Well, I don’t think I’ll ever buy a house. I don’t see myself ever buying a house, or buying a new car. I can barely get my 2012 car fixed. I have healthcare through work, but it’s very shitty. It’s expensive. I can’t keep the doctor that I’ve always had. I have never had to think about tests and medication before, right now I would have to pay $400 for routine blood work that I am supposed to get done every six months. I can’t get it because I can’t afford it. Previously I had no co-pay, then maybe $12 at most, now I have to pay between $80 and $100 for those medications. I’m definitely having to choose between groceries and paying my credit card bill every month. I’m in a lot of debt because I have to rely on credit cards.
At Starbucks I make like $2000 a month in take home pay. My half of the rent is $790. We need to split the cost of rent, or else I would have to pay my whole check just for that. I have my pet insurance, which is $50 a month. My energy bill varies from $40 to $140, and it’s always different. My internet is $100, and car insurance is $140. This, plus groceries, gas, insurance co-pays, clothing, dental etc. I have three credit card bills every month, $60, $100, and $250, and those are just the minimum required payments. I spent $220 at the grocery store yesterday. $40 was for food and supplies for the picket line, but the rest was for our family of 3 and didn’t even include any meat, or for the special foods my partner needs.
I currently have $50,000 in student debt. I basically act as if it doesn’t exist. I haven’t made one single payment since graduating because I’ve never made enough money to be part of any payment plan. I did happen to get a letter yesterday telling me not to forget my loans are continuing to gather interest…
Besides the $50,000 in student debt, I owe more, probably a total of around $65,000.
Plus, I had to take our cat in for a $6000 emergency surgery last week—which I can’t afford.
Kim: You’re making about $24,000 in take home pay from Starbucks, right? How is your income being affected by the strike?
Atlas: Yes, and I am essentially making more money being on strike than I do actually working at Starbucks because I have had to take another job. Our strike pay is 70% of our normal pay so I’ve been getting $450 a week in strike pay. I started Uber driving and I’ve been making like $300 a week doing that, but of course, I have to fill up my gas tank more often and I have to use my own car.
So yeah, if I had to repair my car, I definitely could not afford it. I don’t have any available credit at all so I would have to ask my mom to help, and I don’t even know if she honestly could right now. She helps people with hospice needs. I know that she wants to retire at some point, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen anywhere on the horizon.
Kim: What do you think about Starbucks?
Atlas: I understand our CEO last year made $96 million dollars for four months of “work”. It amounts to about $50,000 an hour. Meanwhile our hourly is between $15 and $19 hour.
I’m grossed out by this company, they preach to the media that they are very progressive, accepting, and that they have all these specially designed programs for LGBTQ folks. They just simply do not, and I think it’s pretty gross. While you can get top surgery, it is still very expensive with a lot of out-of-pocket costs, and as there’s absolutely no paid time off, so you would have to be able to absorb that. Even with the medication that I take, I used to pay six dollars for a six-month supply, and now I pay $100 a month. I am always running out of supplies, needles, etc.
They allow us to use the name that we desire on our name tags, but they don’t protect us from customers. If someone comes in and harasses or stalks us, or does any sort of inappropriate behavior, the company stands with the customer. Problems arise because we are chronically understaffed, and most of these bad situations wouldn’t arise if we actually had enough workers in the stores every day.
Kim: Could you elaborate on what you mean by harassment that you and your co-workers experience?
Atlas: For example, regarding our safety, when Charlie Kirk died, there was an entire movement of people that were coming into Starbucks and forcing us to write “I am Charlie Kirk” on their coffee cups. A customer came in and demanded that “I am Charlie Kirk” be written on their cup at one of the stores and an employee said she would not write anything political on their cup. He was screaming at her!
She was fired for not writing it on the cup.
In previous years she would’ve been protected by the company. It’s literally in our policy that we’re not allowed to write anything ‘political’. Starbucks released a statement that said that we will write full names, no matter what you’re asking, so if someone comes in, you have to write what they tell you to on the cup.
Kim: How is the strike going?
Atlas: We are officially on strike because of unfair labor practices so all the different union busting things they’ve done. They have engaged in over 200 unfair labor practices.
Our contract is asking for better pay, but also better staffing, which is a big part of it. I mean their entire labor algorithm [for staffing] is messed up and it is completely based on using the least amount of workers possible, so that they can make the biggest amount of profit possible. We often have 2 to 3 people working at a time. If they could have just one person, they would definitely do it! But, of course, they can’t get away with it.
In my store we absolutely need a minimum of four people at a time. I would say four should be the minimum but then again when it comes to the mornings when it’s extremely busy, four is not enough, and seven or eight would be a more appropriate number for the busy mornings.
We need workers for the front register, 2-3 people in the bars, one person making food, one person at the window, one taking orders, and preferably one more person doing dishes and cleaning and getting us all of our customer support materials. Normally, we have four people but often one person is out so we are overwhelmed. As a shift supervisor, I have an entire laundry list of tasks I need to finish every single day. I need to count inventory, to place orders, to assign new tasks to every single person and check three different spots to make sure that they’ve been done correctly. It’s exhausting. It’s extremely exhausting, and then I will be expected to take orders, do the window, and warm up all the food all at the same time, which is extremely stressful. It just leads to not only customers being frustrated, but all of us getting extremely burnt out, as was clear in the film about Starbucks conditions: “Baristas vs Billionaires”.
Starbucks has the fifth highest burnout rate [by employment] in the entire country. Brian Niccoll, the CEO, used to be the CEO of chipotle. Chipotle has the second highest rate of burnout in the country, so it’s what his method is. He’s implementing all these new job requirements. He promised all of us more help, i.e. staff, and all we’ve seen is more responsibilities put on our shoulders. We have to write a message with a pen, a handwritten message on every single cup that we hand out. So every single cup has to have a message on it, even water!
From the time customers place their order to the time that they’re driving away from the window it’s supposed to be 45 seconds. 45 seconds! Some of our food takes a minute to heat up so what they’re relying on is mobile orders where people order on the mobile app and then they drive up and are handed something within 10 seconds. Except, people often place their mobile order and show up 60 seconds later, expecting several customized Frappuccinos to be made and available! There are absolutely no explanations in the app, so that people understand how long it’s going actually to take to make the order.
There was also an incident at the beginning of the strike, when Starbucks Workers United organized a 48-hour picket to shut down an important Starbucks Chicago “reserve store” as part of expanding the strike effort. Starbucks flew Brian Niccoll to strategize with corporate executives there. There is a video where a barista found him walking down the sidewalk with his security detail and asked to speak with him multiple times. Apparently, Niccol ran out into traffic to avoid talking to the barista and almost got hit by a car. He apparently would rather risk an accident to avoid having to answer to a striking barista.
Kim: What other issues do people experience working at Starbucks?
Atlas: Every single employee has suffered injuries at work, some are small like burns and cuts, but they’re constant. I mean in July I literally started a log in my journal of all the times I got hurt at work. It was an entire page of every time I slammed my finger, cut myself or burned myself. I literally broke a bone in my finger because I was working so fast for such a long period of time. My other finger had to be wrapped for a long while due to a sprain—just so many injuries.
I mean like one of my coworkers last year was literally shaking in pain. She sprained her ankle.
She had to take a leave of absence. She couldn’t come back because she was in so much pain every day. It’s constant. One of my other coworkers injured her knee in a non-work-related incident, but it was so bad, she’s always put on barista duty because she’s the fastest. She’s making drinks and she has to spin on that knee all day. She had to go on leave for four months.
I frankly think it was way too early for her to come back to work because she can barely walk and she’s got a huge brace and she’s suffering. Any accommodations—even if it’s just to sit down for five minutes, they denied her. She has to go through this entire process, to get any accommodations, and that takes weeks, if not months. I mean she’s worked at Starbucks for like five years, which is really sad that that’s what it comes down to, but they don’t want people with any sort of ailments.
Kim: Do you think Starbucks workers could do your job better without bosses?
Atlas: Yes! I mean the workers do the work. Our boss does not do anything. The manager spends most of her day in the back, or she will come up and talk to a customer at the front. She will spend the entirety of her shift standing around and just adjusting the way merchandise looks for hours plus making sure I write a message on every single cup. She’s basically just like a little police officer that walks around and makes sure everybody is doing all the little, tiny things while at the same time ignoring what really needs doing.
Kim: As a worker on strike against a notorious anti-union company, what are your opinions about the capitalist system?
Atlas: I think capitalism is the worst thing that’s ever happened. I mean, I think it’s ruining the world. It just keeps making poor people poorer, and rich people richer, and nobody’s held accountable. Nobody has any sort of consequences for treating their workers horribly. The bosses and government don’t want us to have any power because they don’t want us to redistribute wealth. They just want more and more.
People tend to be under the illusion that they will someday be billionaires, and that is incredibly unlikely. Being on strike and handing out flyers to people, I’ve noticed the demographics of who takes our flyers and who are interested in what we have to say, and others who couldn’t give a shit. Almost every single person who takes our flyer is a woman a queer person, a trans person, a person of color, a Black person, someone with disabilities, or someone who is a barista themselves. The majority of who do not take our flyers are white businessmen and students.
There are a lot of unhoused people in Madison. Years ago, Starbucks had a welcoming policy, inviting people to come in and use the stores like a living room or a place to study. They changed their policies so you can’t come in and sit unless you’re making a purchase, so they skewed that to make it seem like they cared about baristas. They could’ve solved all their issues if they staffed the stores properly. That is literally the only issue.
Sometimes people used to lay out their wet clothes to dry in front of a fireplace, or they would go into the bathrooms. There were times where people would find that somebody died in the bathroom because they overdosed, but that could have been solved if there was more staffing. Someone could walk up to that person and like to have a moment of connection with them. We are not allowed to give away free water anymore. You can’t use the bathroom unless you’re making a purchase.
My boss comes from Walmart, and her job there was literally kicking out unhoused people. So, all day at my job she is policing people. If she sees someone sit down in the café, even if they’re putting down their bag and then they’re going to come up and grab the mobile order, or order at the café, she is harassing them. Starbucks wants rich white customers, that’s all they want. They don’t want anybody else in the building.
Kim: What do you think about the fact that you can work at Starbucks and be eligible for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)?
Atlas: I think it’s just gross. I mean, I think the way that they will spend millions of dollars for corporate retreats like this last summer they spent $86 million to send ‘corporate’ to Vegas for a big conference and they had Bruno Mars and Keke Palmer perform. They paid for everybody’s flight, hotels, cars, food, everything. Yet, it costs that much money or less to just give us what we’re asking for in terms of payment. We are getting 5 and 10 cent raises. I started at Starbucks at $15 an hour. But the first day I worked, I found out I had to pay $17 every day to park in a parking garage. I could only afford to buy two of the dozens of specialty drinks I have to make for customers per hour on that wage.
Kim: Some of your co-workers have crossed the line. Why do you think that is?
Atlas: For self-centered reasons, like having to pay bills. Obviously, we all have bills. I understand that. Or they say, “I have a child.” Well, I have a child too.
Some people who have been working there a long time and act progressive around all the other issues, but yet didn’t go on strike when it came down to it. I think they think they are better than the rest of us. Others make different types of excuses.
When we all said that we were authorizing a strike, Starbucks posted this union busting letter in every single union café saying: “if you go on strike, just so you know, you only represent 5% of Starbucks stores, and thousands of other stores will still be open and operating normally.”
We’ve been going to other stores and telling them that we’re on strike and telling them that they can join the union at any point. We have not had good experiences at any of the stores that we have gone to. Managers are working more than ever now, and they are constantly there, just sitting in the café, watching for us. And all the workers are terrified. They are all scared that they’re going to get fired if they talk to us. They’re all scared that they’re going to get written up or in trouble.
I have had enough barista jobs where I know that I could just find another barista job if it’s about risk. But it is also more than just about me. This is about my 16-year-old coworker, who shouldn’t have to even have her first job yet. We know why she has to have a job, because her family needs the income. Because of the way we are treated, she is coming to believe she’s worth nothing. She is acquiring lifelong injuries from how fast she’s working every single day, and she has no savings to account for any sort of medical issues that will be a result of this job down the road.
I mean the one coworker of mine who is scabbing, before the strike she was very adamant about telling everybody about all the wonderful benefits that Starbucks offers. And it’s like, sure they have more benefits than your regular mom and pop café, but they can afford to give those benefits, and they can also afford to pay us a living wage and provide better working conditions.
Another striking worker used to be in management. She’s spent many days in management training sessions where they learn all of the ways unions will “ruin our lives’. None of it was true and none of it was logical. What is illogical is that we have endless tasks and we have to have perfect customer service. We are allowed to have 4 or less complaints for every 5000 customers and do that with three or four employees.
Kim: What do you think would count as a win from this strike?
Atlas: I think depending on the state or area you work in, approximately $20 per hour for baristas, and $25 for shift leads would feel like a win for now.
I think that we would have to keep spreading the world among more locations, so we have a larger percentage of unionized stores so if and when we go on strike again it affects the company more. I think being able to be on strike for even longer would be helpful too.
*Kim Gasper-Rabuck is a former middle school teacher and full-time parent. She has been an activist and organizer who has worked to stop wars, defend abortion, fight police brutality, support strikes, and fight for socialist ideas and organization for the last 35 years.
