Starbucks Barista Strike Reaches New Hampshire

By Arnie Alpert, Active with the Activists

Arnie Alpert spent decades as a community organizer/educator in NH movements for social justice and peace.  Officially retired from the American Friends Service Committee since 2020, he keeps his hands (and feet) in the activist world while writing about past and present social movements.  You can reach him at arnie.alpert@indepthnh.org. 

The “Red Cup Rebellion” strike of Starbucks workers reached New Hampshire Thursday, when baristas set up picket lines at stores in Epping, Stratham, and Seabrook.  The Stratham store, normally open until 9:00 pm, was closed by 12:30 pm. 

“We’re not staffed properly, so we’re overworked, and we don’t get paid enough for the amount of work that we do,” said Scott Lasalette, who was on the picket line outside the Epping store.  

Cailyn Heath, a shift supervisor at the Stratham Starbucks, said the strike will go on “as long as it takes.”

“We want better wages. We want better working conditions. We want people to be able to afford rent,” she said, “to be paid enough that they can afford an apartment, that they don’t have to be choosing between groceries and meds.”

Nationwide, the strike launched on November 13, with walkouts at 65 stores in more than 40 cities.  Like the UAW’s 2023 Stand Up Strike, Starbucks Workers United is adding more stores each week.  Today, the union said, baristas went on strike at 26 additional stores including the three in New Hampshire, bringing the total to more than 145. 

The company says “99% of our 17,000 U.S. locations remain open.”

The union says its strike is focused on hundreds of unresolved unfair labor practice charges, “more labor law violations than any employer in modern history.”  The charges include firings of union members and a failure to negotiate over policies such as a controversial dress code.

The union is getting support from the Teamsters Union, whose members have a practice of refusing to cross picket lines.  April Richer, a Dover Teamster who was on the picket lines in Epping and Stratham today, said a Teamster delivery driver turned back from the Stratham store this morning.  

Lasallette said the Epping store had less than half its normal staffing today due to the strike.  “The store can’t operate with those numbers,” he said.

By early afternoon, a sign taped to the door of the Stratham Starbucks said, “We have temporarily closed our in-store café, but our drive-through remains open.”  When I arrived at about 1 pm, the café was dark and the drive-through window appeared to be unstaffed.  “Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience,” the sign said.

According to a company statement, “Starbucks offers the best job in retail, with pay and benefits averaging $30 per hour for hourly partners.”  Lasallette said that as a full-time worker, he has access to benefits, but that many baristas, who work less than 20 hours a week, are out of luck.  “The benefits are nearly impossible to get with the current way that the stores are run,” he said.

According to the company’s own figures, its CEO last year made 6666 times as much as the median worker, a part-time barista earning $14,674 a year.

The union continues to ask potential customers to stay away from all Starbucks stores and products while the strike is on.  A union email, sent today, said, “On December 15, we’re asking allies across the country to show up at non-union Starbucks stores to ask customers to stop buying Starbucks. It only takes 1 to 3 people to make a real impact. And if we work together, we can talk to thousands upon thousands of customers at hundreds of stores all on the same day.”

According to the union, more than 200,000 people have signed their “No Contract, No Coffee” pledge.  The union has also drawn support from a wide range of organizations, including major unions, Peace Action, the Sunrise Movement, and the Democratic Socialists of America, which is organizing “strike kitchens” in support of union members.

The union and the company each accuse the other of walking away from the bargaining table.  “Right now, it’s their move,” Heath said.

Picketing Friday morning will focus on the Starbucks store at Seabrook Crossing.  The New Hampshire AFL-CIO emailed an alert to its members encouraging them to be there.