☕️ Skip the Peppermint Mocha! Stand With the People Who Make Your Coffee

🎄 The Holiday Ask

Before you order that festive red-cup favorite, take a breath.

A deep breath, we know you’re addicted.

Thousands of Starbucks baristas across the country are asking you to skip your peppermint mocha, or whatever your go to holiday drink is, and for that matting, STAY OUT OF THE STORE altogether, they’re on strike.

This isn’t being done lightly, Silvia Baldwin, a striking barista from Philadelphia, points out that the very people asking you to hold off for now are the same people who remember your name, your extra shot, and that you like your latte “just barely hot.”

“If you really support me, knowing that I’m the one who makes this experience that you come back for every day, then don’t buy from the company that’s refusing to meet its workers at the table.”

💥 David vs. Goliath in a Green Apron

Starting on November 13^th, over 1,000 unionized Starbucks workers from 65 stores in 41 cities walked off the job, but on Black Friday, the union escalated it’s strike to more than 120 stores in 85 cities indefinitely. The union accuses the company of unfair labor practices and refusing to bargain in good faith.

Kai Fritz, an elected captain at the first Brooklyn store to unionize at the Cesars Bay location, says baristas simply cannot afford not to strike.

“We’ve gotten through 90 percent of our contract. The only thing left is the money. Starbucks has the tools, the resources, and the ability to settle this, it’s just refusing to come to the table.”

The average barista earns around $15 an hour, working roughly 19-hours a week, just below the company’s required 20-hour threshold to qualify for benefits.
Meanwhile, they say Brian Niccol, Starbucks’ CEO makes 6,666 times the median barista’s pay. That’s four sixes, not three.

☕️ The Myth of the “Progressive Employer”

Starbucks built an empire selling their brand as a cool inclusive corporate environment: a safe, creative space where employees were encouraged to “be yourself.”

But the workers, like Kai Fritz, who built that culture say it’s empty marketing.

“I’m a queer worker. I have piercings and dyed hair,” says Fritz, “The company has strayed very far from the environment they advertised, if they were ever true to it. They’ve banned pride flags in many stores. They use inclusion as a tool for marketing, not as a practice.”

Silvia Baldwin, on strike in Philadelphia adds:

“Starbucks realized that a workforce of energized, justice-minded queer people is not the best for them because we expect the company to live up to its own values.”

📉 Behind the Counter: the Union Claims

• 400 + labor-law violations

• 700 + unfair-labor-practice charges

• Hundreds of stores closed or reorganized

• Zero new union contracts finalized since 2021

“We spend a majority of our waking lives printing money for these people,” Fritz says, “We shouldn’t have to worry about where rent is going to come from.”

💪 Real Community, Not Corporate Coffee

This strike isn’t just about money, it’s also about dignity, democracy, and survival.

“For all the talk about Starbucks being a family, the company doesn’t treat us like one,” Baldwin says, “but we’ve built our own family through this strike.”

Across the country, workers have opened strike kitchens, food pantries, and hardship funds. Community members are cooking meals and donating groceries to the people who once handed them their morning coffee.

🚫 How You Can Help

☕ Don’t cross the picket line. Skip Starbucks. Yes, even the bottled drinks at the grocery store.
📱 Delete the Starbucks app. “They’ll feel it,” says Fritz. “The company measures success through app engagement.”
🗣️ Talk to your people. Convince friends and family to sit this one out, too.
✊ Show up. Join local picket lines and rallies; bring coffee (from somewhere else).

“Our strength comes from our numbers,” says Baldwin. “When we act collectively, we win. When we fight, we win.”

🌍 The Bigger Picture

Starbucks isn’t just a coffee chain it’s a symbol of corporate progressivism without accountability. Supporting these workers is about more than one contract. It’s about proving that “ethical consumption” means nothing without ethical employment.

So yes, the peppermint mocha can wait.
Because dignity doesn’t come with whipped cream.

Is that too cheesy? Whatever, this is a crisis.

✊ Call to Action

→ So, if you want to be part of the solution, skip the line, skip the app, stand with the workers.
Delete the Starbucks app, boycott the stores, and share this message: No contract, No coffee.

“Starbucks wants to sell community,” says Baldwin. “We’re building the real one.”

Listen to the full interview from WBAI’s We Decide: America at the Crossroads

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