Starbucks stores, including some in NJ, end Pride month with nationwide strike

🔴 The union is upset Pride displays were removed from stores for safety concerns

🔴 Three New Jersey Starbucks stores are unionized

🔴 Members marched in the New York City Pride parade on Sunday

Workers at 150 unionized Starbucks stores around the country will strike during the last week of Pride Month over what they say is the company’s unfair treatment of queer and trans workers and intimidation to stop them from unionizing.

"Strike with Pride" is an effort by the Starbucks Workers Union to get the company to negotiate fair contracts with union stores and what they call illegal union busting which has significantly affected the LGBT workforce.

It's not clear how many, if any, of the unionized stores in Hamilton (Mercer), Hopewell and Montclair stores are participating in the strike.  Starbucks Workers United NJ did not respond to New Jersey 101.5's request for more information.

The organization's Twitter account said a unionization vote was taken at the Cherry Hill store in May but did not follow up with the result.

Workers from the New Jersey stores marched in the New York City Pride parade Sunday holding signs that read "Starbucks, union busting is homophobic" and "Starbucks took down Pride decorations and lied about it."

Marching at the NYC Pride parade

Workers United says that store managers around the country have curtailed or removed displays during a monthlong celebration of LGBT people. In some cases, the union said, managers told workers that Pride displays were a safety concern, citing recent incidents at Target where some angry customers tipped over merchandise and confronted workers.

“Starbucks is scared of the power that their queer partners hold, and they should be. Their choice to align themselves with other corporations that have withdrawn their 'support' of the queer community in the time we need it most shows that they are not the inclusive company they promote themselves to be,” Moe Mills, shift supervisor from Richmond Heights, Missouri, said in a statement released by the union.

Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan and North American President Sara Trilling in a joint statement said the company has always proudly flown a Progress Pride flag at its support center and in thousands of stores around the country. There has been no change in what they describe as inclusive store environments, company culture and benefits offered to all employees.

"We must ALL have the same vision for how all people, including LGBTQIA2+ people, should be treated – with respect, support and allyship, because belonging is a core value. As such, we strongly disapprove of any person or group, seeking to use our partners’ cultural and heritage celebrations to create harm or flagrantly advance misinformation for self-interested goals," Narasimhan and Trilling said in their statement.

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