Employed strike
Starbucks employee defend themselves against strict dress code
15.05.2025 – 7:02 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The introduction of a stricter dress code at Starbucks leads to resistance. More than 1,000 employees in North America strike to express their displeasure.
Starbucks is the largest coffee house chain in the world – and has long since become an icon. However, the US company, which was founded in Seattle in the state of Washington in 1971, is always criticized.
Employees repeatedly report on high working pressure, irregular working hours and low job security, especially in the USA. There, more than 1,000 employees of 75 branches in the USA and Canada have now kicked. This was announced by the union that represented the employees on Wednesday.
The reason for the strike is a new, strict dress code. The previous dress code allowed Baristas to wear a wider range of dark colors and patterned shirts under their famous green aprons. Now you can only wear black tops and black, blue or khaki jeans. Starbucks announced that each employee provide two black T-shirts free of charge.
According to Starbucks, this dress code should better highlight the green aprons and create a “feeling of familiarity” for customers. According to its own statements, the company tries to create a “warmer, more inviting feeling” in its branches.
Starbucks Workers United, the union, which represented employees in 570 of the 10,000 Starbucks branches in the United States, said that the dress code should have been the subject of collective bargaining.
A Starbucks shifter told the Associated Press news agency that the group focuses on the wrong things: “It doesn’t matter what color our clothes have when they have to wait 30 minutes for a latte.”
Starbucks himself does not seem to be impressed by the strike. The company announced that the industrial action only had a limited impact on the 10,000 US branches operated by the company. According to the union, less than one percent of Starbucks employees participate in the strikes, and in some cases the business was closed for less than an hour, the company said.
