Here's why Starbucks workers are going on strike this week, when Red Cup Day 2023 is

Starbucks’ highly anticipated Red Cup Day is coming with a rebellion this year in Florida. Starbucks workers in Jacksonville will join a nationwide Starbucks workers’ rebellion and strike Thursday, November 16.

“Red Cup Day (November 16th) is Starbucks’s biggest sales event of the season — and also one of the most infamously hard, understaffed days for the baristas that work them,” a press release from the Starbucks’ employee union said.

The Starbucks on San Jose Blvd. and Ricky Drive in Mandarin will be striking for two days, on Nov. 15 and 16, according to a press release from those participating.

“My coworkers and I are on strike today, in solidarity with over 150 unionized Starbucks stores across the country, to push Starbucks into negotiating our first contract,” Mason Boykin, a Starbucks partner from the Ricky Drive store said.

Here’s why Starbucks workers are striking and when Red Cup Day is this year.

Starbucks Workers United: walkouts, strikes at hundreds of stores on Red Cup Day

Why are Starbucks workers going on strike?

On big promotion days, like the yearly Red Cup Day tradition, Starbucks stores are overwhelmed with droves of customers and employees often have trouble keeping up with hordes of people trying to get their hands on a free reusable holiday-themed coffee cup.

The Starbucks workers union is bucking against the company on Red Cup Day because the company has failed to reach an agreement with the union on fair labor policies.

This year’s “Red Cup Rebellion” will be the second of its kind. Starbucks workers from over 100 stores went on strike during the red cup promotion last year as well.

“We continue to work understaffed and under-supported and are expected to take it, but we’re here to say we won’t,” Boykin said. “We deserve a fair contract now and we hope Starbucks will come to the table ready to bargain.”

What are the labor union issues with Starbucks?

There are over 16,200 Starbucks stores nationwide and more than 800 in Florida.

Over 300 stores and 9,000 Starbucks workers across the nation have successfully unionized over the last two years, sparking a wave of other stores wishing to follow suit. The goal of unionizing is to give Starbucks baristas a platform that they can use to bargain with the company over staffing, scheduling and other company-wide issues.

But Starbucks has illegally delayed bargaining talks with most stores looking to unionize. As a result, The National Labor Relations Board has won over 20 cases against the coffee company for its is currently failure to bargain with its workers.

According to Starbucks partners from the San Jose Boulevard location, “Instead of bargaining with workers, Starbucks has illegally offered workers at only nonunion stores benefits – like credit card tipping – that unionized workers have called for since the beginning of the campaign … Last week, they offered 3% raises to nonunion workers.”

'Tis the season: Are Starbucks Christmas drinks out? How long will pumpkin spice last? What we know

What day is Starbucks Red Cup Day 2023?

Starbucks announced that its annual free Red Cup Day will be on Thursday, Nov. 16 this year.

All day on Thursday, anyone who buys one of Starbucks’ holiday drinks, iced or hot, will also receive a 16 ounce holiday-themed reusable red cup.

If you bring your red cup back to Starbucks instead of using a disposable cup for your next visit, you’ll get a 10 cent discount on your order. Starbucks rewards members who use the app to order a drink in their red cup will also receive 25 extra reward points for not using a disposable cup.

What is Starbucks saying about the Red Cup Day strike?

"We are aware that Workers United has publicized a day of action at a small subset of our U.S. stores," a spokesperson for Starbucks told USA TODAY. "We remain committed to working with all partners, side-by-side, to elevate the everyday, and we hope that Workers United's priorities will shift to include the shared success of our partners and working to negotiate contracts for those they represent,"

The company has told other publications, like Eater, that the Starbucks workers union hasn't agreed to meet for bargaining in more than four months. Management at Jacksonville couldn't be immediately reached.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Starbucks workers are going on strike for Red Cup Day 2023. Here's why