More than 1,200 Starbucks Workers United members are now on strike because the company implemented a new dress code. Starbucks’ new dress-code policy requires workers to wear a solid black top with bottoms that are either a shade of black, khaki, or blue denim. The “more defined color palette,” the company said, will “allow our iconic green apron to shine and create a sense of familiarity for our customers, no matter which store they visit across North America.” The company is even providing employees with a couple of free black shirts. Seems relatively harmless for a company like Starbucks to desire some sense of uniformity in its employees’ work wear.
But, according to Paige Summers, a Starbucks employee from Hanover, Md., “Starbucks has lost its way. Instead of listening to baristas who make the Starbucks experience what it is, they are focused on all the wrong things, like implementing a restrictive new dress code. Customers don’t care what color our clothes are when they’re waiting 30 minutes for a latte.”