Starbucks Workers United reports that upwards of 2,000 baristas across 120 U.S. locations are currently engaged in industrial action, commencing Sunday, to contest the implementation of a revised and, according to the union, restrictive dress code.

Starbucks, effective Monday, instituted novel restrictions on attire permissible beneath the green apron, mandating, within its revised dress code, the wearing of solid black shirts and khaki, black, or blue denim bottoms for employees across corporate-owned and licensed stores in the United States and Canada.

Starbucks posits that the revised dress code, superseding the prior latitude afforded to baristas in their sartorial choices of darker hues and patterned shirts, will, by virtue of accentuating the iconic green apron, cultivate a more convivial and accessible ambiance within its establishments, thereby fostering enhanced customer rapport.

Notwithstanding, Starbucks Workers United, the union representing employees at 570 of Starbucks' 10,000 company-operated stores in the United States, contends that the implementation of this dress code should be subject to collective bargaining.

Paige Summers, a Starbucks shift supervisor from Hanover, Maryland, lamented Starbucks' apparent strategic misdirection, asserting that the company, instead of attending to the insights of baristas who cultivate the Starbucks experience, is fixated on demonstrably irrelevant matters, such as the imposition of a draconian new dress code, adding sardonically that customers, while enduring a thirty-minute wait for a latte, are unlikely to be preoccupied with the sartorial choices of the staff.

Summers et al. further excoriated the corporation for its internal website peddling of Starbucks-branded apparel, items erstwhile permissible under the previous sartorial regime but now proscribed by the revised dress code, notwithstanding Starbucks' contemporaneous announcement, concurrent with the promulgation of said new code, that each employee would receive two complimentary black t-shirts as a palliative measure.

On Wednesday, Starbucks Workers United divulged that a coordinated walkout involving 1,000 employees across 75 Starbucks locations nationwide had transpired; Starbucks, for its part, characterized the strike's repercussions as circumscribed, impacting a mere fraction of its 10,000 U.S. stores, with some outlets experiencing closures lasting under an hour in isolated instances.

Starbucks posited in a statement that the union's fervent dedication to protesting uniform regulations, specifically the mandated black shirts, would be far more efficacious if redirected towards constructive engagement at the bargaining table, further noting that the vast majority of their locations, exceeding 99%, remain operational and committed to serving patrons throughout the week.

AP通信の読者から寄せられた意見は、ドレスコードに対する評価が一様ではなく、ある者は、スターバックスのバリスタが不満を呈するほどの問題とは捉えず、多くの小売企業が従業員に対し特定の服装規定を課している現状を指摘した一方で、スターバックスは従業員の服装規定よりも、飲料の品質向上、価格設定の適正化、ひいては従業員の満足度向上にこそ注力すべきであるという意見も散見された。

Maddie MacCullough, a Seattle-based Starbucks store manager, voiced her endorsement of the newly implemented regulations.

MacCulloch conceded that the revised dress code presented a formidable challenge for his retail partners, yet posited that it would cultivate a more harmonised standard, enabling them to interface optimally whilst simultaneously affording scope for the articulation of individual idiosyncrasies.

Starbucks Workers United has been engaged in unionizing efforts across American locations since 2021; despite an agreement between Starbucks and the union to resume negotiations in February 2024, a contractual consensus remains elusive.

This week, the union asserted it lodged a formal complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging Starbucks's refusal to negotiate the implementation of the revised dress code.