Starbucks Pride Flag Strike Drags Coffee Into Culture War

A dispute about LGBTQ+ Pride Month decorations between Starbucks and some of the coffee chain's workers has spilled over into a week-long strike across stores in the U.S.

Members of Starbucks Workers United, a collective that hopes to gain union recognition from the company, began on June 23 its Strike with Pride week of walkouts—which is primarily about what it describes as unfair labor practices.

The collective said the strike would begin with the chain's flagship Seattle Roastery store, and would involve more than 3,000 workers across over 150 outlets. A spokesperson said that, as of Monday, workers at 60 stores had participated in the industrial action.

Starbucks has publicly denied that it had been taking down LGBTQ+ Pride decorations, previously telling Newsweek that it "unwaveringly" supports the LGBTQ+ community and that "there has been no change to any policy on this matter."

"Starbucks has not pulled any Pride merchandise from our stores and have not altered our corporate policies or approach to celebrating Pride Month," a spokesperson reiterated to Newsweek on Monday.

"We are not arguing that this is a corporate-wide policy, but we are arguing that upper management across the country made the decision to not allow pride decorations and we find it incredibly hard to believe that Starbucks wasn't aware of this," a Starbucks Workers United spokesperson said.

"Starbucks could have simply apologized and remedied the situation," they added. "Instead, they continue to gaslight workers and the public."

The Starbucks spokesperson responded that managers were allowed to decorate their stores as they wished for heritage months, including LGBTQ+ Pride Month.

With some praising the coffee chain and others decrying it for the alleged slight against the LGBTQ+ community, the issue is rapidly becoming a facet of an ongoing culture war about LGBTQ+ inclusion in public life.

Several brands have faced condemnation from conservatives over marketing advocating for the LGBTQ+ community. While some have appeared to pull back from such moves, others have stood by their espoused values.

Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, referenced the strike in a tweet on Friday, which as of 3:20 a.m. ET Monday had been viewed 2.1 million times.

"They claim Starbucks is caving to growing backlash to Pride just like Target, which removed or repositioned Pride merch to the back of many stores," he wrote, referencing another recent culture war backlash against Target over its LGBTQ+ Pride clothing and accessories range. "This doesn't happen if we didn't finally start pushing back."

"If you want to see why policy outcomes aren't just the aggregate of public opinion, why swaying hearts and minds with compelling stories MATTERS, and why you have to be in the culture war, compare the Starbucks reaction to the 2016 NC bathroom bill to Starbucks today," Will Stancil, a research fellow at the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity, commented.

He cited Starbuck's opposition in 2016 to an "anti-LGBT" law in North Carolina which effectively banned cities from enacting non-discrimination laws and outlawed gender neutral toilets in schools.

On June 13, Starbucks Workers United published a list of incidents in which Pride decorations were said to be recorded by staff as being taken down by managers, including in one store in Madison, Wisconsin. Matt Cartwright, a Starbucks worker there, argued at the time that Starbucks "has betrayed and turned its back on queer workers."

Commenting on the nationwide strike action, Moe Mills, a shift supervisor from Richmond Heights, Missouri, said in a statement: "[Starbucks'] 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."

A spokesperson for the company said that the collective "continues to spread false information about our benefits, policies and negotiation efforts—a tactic used to seemingly divide our partners and deflect from their failure to respond to bargaining sessions for more than 200 stores."

They also apologized to customers inconvenienced by the collective action.

The company also highlighted the raising of the LGBTQ+ flag over its Seattle headquarters on Friday, and pointed to a June 23 message from CEO Laxman Narasimhan, who said: "We want to be crystal clear—Starbucks has been and will continue to be at the forefront of supporting the LGBTQIA2+ community, and we will not waver in that commitment!"

"The pride decorations are just a small part of what this strike is about. More broadly, this is an unfair labor practice," a Starbucks Workers United spokesperson said. "Our movement is largely led by queer workers, and we are fighting for rights and protections for queer workers in the workplace. Our stance is that queer rights and workers' rights."

Starbucks Workers United is calling for the right to organize, wages of at least $20 dollars an hour—according to careers site Indeed, the national average is currently $12.57—and a 15-minute paid break during shifts.

Starbucks' March investor proxy statement noted it had risen the minimum wage for U.S. employees to $15 an hour, and a spokesperson said the average wage was $17.50 an hour.

The collective also referenced a November 2022 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board, which found Starbucks had "engaged in unfair labor practices" by "failing and refusing" to recognize and bargain with Starbucks Workers United. Documents show Starbucks denied the ruling.

Images and videos posted by chapters of the collective show workers striking in San Francisco, California, and Oklahoma City.

They also show people wearing the Starbucks Workers United logo attending LGBTQ+ Pride marches in New York City, as well as Montclair, New Jersey, and Seattle, Washington.

"While we respect the right of our partners to engage in lawful union activities without fear of retaliation, inaccurate information shared by Workers United ignores the facts of the matter and distracts from efforts to move the good faith bargaining process forward," a Starbucks spokesperson said.

Update 06/26/23, 9:22 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from a Starbucks Workers United spokesperson.

Update 06/27/23, 3:18 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from a Starbucks spokesperson.