Starbucks is once again clashing with its workers — this time over the coffee chain’s newly announced dress code.
More than 2,000 baristas from over 100 stores have walked off the job since May 11 to protest the uniform requirements, according to the Starbucks Workers United union.
Union members are furious that the company decided to impose a new dress code unilaterally — and frustrated that this comes as the corporate behemoth has yet to finalize a fair contract governing issues like wages and health benefits.
Starbucks first unveiled the new dress code in a post on April 14, noting that the company would soon require staff to wear short or long-sleeve black shirts with khaki, black or blue bottoms to make the company’s “iconic green apron…shine.” That’s a departure from past policy, which allowed employees to don a wider array of patterns and colors, and which had more flexibility on other fronts like shoes and piercings, the union says.
Abiding by these requirements is costly, and the enforcement has been chaotic, some employees said.
“Starbucks is making us buy entirely new dress-code-compliant clothing,” Paige Summers, a Maryland-based shift supervisor who walked off on Monday, told HuffPost in a statement. “Many of us can’t afford a new wardrobe.”
Starbucks said it would provide two company-branded shirts to each worker, though workers told USA Today that these have been slow to materialize. The walkouts, which involved baristas leaving their shifts midway through but returning the next day, are expected to continue into the weekend, Starbucks Workers United said.
Starbucks, meanwhile, has dismissed the outcry as a distraction from broader negotiations the company and union are engaging in.
“While the union is focused on a simplified dress code, we’re focused on providing the best job in retail with a wage and benefits package that averages more than $30 per hour for hourly partners,” Starbucks told HuffPost in a statement, adding that the protests involve a small fraction of the company’s staff. “It would be more productive if the union would put the same effort into coming back to the table to finalize a reasonable contract.”
The walkouts over the new dress code add to a list of labor disputes the Seattle-headquartered chain has had with its workers.
Starbucks and the union have been at an impasse after roughly a year of bargaining for a contract, with disagreements remaining on core issues, including an increase to the company’s pay floor and policies for annual raises.
“Baristas are struggling to pay our bills and keep up with rising costs while [CEO Brian Niccol] made $800,000 a day in 2024. That’s outrageous,” said barista Michelle Eisen when talks collapsed in April.
This past December, Workers United filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Starbucks of negotiating in bad faith. It’s since expanded that complaint to include workers’ concerns with the new dress code as well.