Starbucks’ Red Cup Day Strike Signals A Corporate Reckoning

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Starbucks’ workers union, Starbucks Workers United, is planning a strike on Thursday, November 13, to coincide with Starbucks’ Red Cup Day. On Red Cup Day, Starbucks customers are able to order specific holiday beverages and they receive a reusable red holiday cup. According to reports, Starbucks employees in at least 25 different cities in 550 unionized Starbucks stores are planning to participate in the strike, although the specific stores affected have not been disclosed. Employees are striking to push for more equitable union contracts. Starbucks employees have a long history of striking—most recently, in December 2024, Starbucks Workers United organized a five-day strike at different stores across the country.

In a statement, a Starbucks spokesperson clarified that employees were striking due to contract negotiation disputes. “We have been clear that Workers United left the bargaining table and when they’re ready to talk, so are we.” The Starbucks spokesperson referenced this statement regarding the negotiation dispute and shared, “We do not anticipate their action will interrupt the fun we had planned for Red Cup Day across the country.”

The calls for a workers strike come at a complicated moment in Starbucks’ history. Over the last several years, the company has been mired in controversy. For more than two years, there have been calls from pro-Palestinians on social media, including Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda, to boycott Starbucks and other companies, who are, as Owda called it in an Instagram video, complicit in, “feeding the killing machine.” According to NBC News, the calls to boycott were sparked after the company removed an X post from their workers union that stated, “Solidarity with Palestine.”

A spokesperson for Starbucks refuted claims that the boycott was sparked because of the removal of the X post and highlighted this statement posted by the company. In an email, the spokesperson also clarified, “We have no control over what Workers United does or doesn’t post on social media. Workers United pulled down the post after [assumably] facing backlash from their own followers. The reason for the subsequent IP lawsuit was because this exact piece of misinformation was spreading online and Workers United’s unlawful use of our logo on their social media handles was causing confusion and ultimately reputational damage.”

There have been several other companies that have sparked public outrage recently. After reports that advertisements from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were running on Spotify, there have been calls for a mass boycott. Beyoncé recently unveiled her holiday merchandise for 2025 but many on social media have called the singer “out of touch” for releasing merchandise while many Americans are reeling from the government shutdown and the suspension of the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Sephora and Mariah Carey were also called out recently, with calls to boycott Sephora, after an ad came out that many also found out of touch. In the Sephora ad, it appeared that Carey was downplaying boycotts and economic struggles, promoting an anti-worker message. There have also been calls to boycott Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand SKIMS after it was announced that it will be opening 15 stores in Israel by 2026.

The strikes planned for Red Cup Day and the willingness of consumers to participate in company boycotts signal an important trend that corporations should take note of. People are realizing the power they hold and that corporations are often only driven to change when their profits are threatened. With the advent of social media, people can gain a better understanding of the values of celebrities and corporations alike. Boycotts are the language of the unheard: more and more people are choosing to withhold their dollar in order to make their voices heard.

Rather than ignoring the backlash or hoping it will blow over, corporations should address the criticism head-on and strive to develop products and services that speak to societal needs with nuance and care. A company creating, for example, an ad campaign that is insensitive or oblivious to the fact that large part of its customer base is suffering financially, is a fool’s errand. More and more people are looking for ways to push back against the status quo. A company that neglects or fails to consider consumer needs and experiences will not only suffer financial loss but may also cause irreparable harm to its reputation.

This article was originally published in Forbes on November 12, 2025.