Thursday witnessed the escalation of a barista strike against Starbucks, triggered by the company's recently implemented dress code.

Starbucks Workers United, a union representing the coffee chain's U.S. workforce, reports that over 2,000 baristas across 120 U.S. locations have initiated strike action since Sunday, citing grievances over the newly implemented dress code.

Effective Monday, Starbucks has instituted new stipulations regarding attire permissible beneath baristas' signature green aprons, mandating that employees at both company-operated and licensed establishments across the U.S. and Canada adhere to a dress code of solid black shirts paired with khaki, black, or blue denim bottoms.

The erstwhile dress code permitted baristas greater latitude in their sartorial choices, encompassing a wider palette of dark hues and patterned shirts; however, Starbucks posited that the revised regulations, foregrounding their signature green aprons, would cultivate a heightened sense of brand recognition for patrons, concurrently fostering a more convivial and inviting atmosphere within their establishments.

However, Starbucks Workers United, the union representing employees in over half a thousand of Starbucks' ten thousand company-operated U.S. locations, contended that alterations to the dress code necessitate collective bargaining.

Paige Summers, a Starbucks shift supervisor from Hanover, Maryland, asserted that the corporation has lost sight of its core values, prioritizing inconsequential matters such as a stringent new dress code over the concerns of its baristas, who are integral to the Starbucks experience, adding that patrons are unlikely to be concerned with employees' attire when faced with protracted wait times for their beverages.

Summers et al. also took issue with the company's decision to sell Starbucks-branded apparel, mirroring discontinued employee dress code items, via an internal platform; this occurred subsequent to Starbucks' announcement that each employee would receive two complimentary black T-shirts upon implementation of the updated policy.

The Starbucks Workers Union announced Wednesday that walkouts, involving approximately 1,000 employees, had transpired across 75 U.S. locations; Starbucks countered that the industrial action exerted a negligible influence on its 10,000 company-operated stores nationwide, further specifying instances where closures lasted under an hour.

Starbucks stated that the union's energy would be better spent resuming negotiations rather than staging protests, such as wearing black shirts to work, adding that over 99% of their stores remain open and operational, as they have been throughout the week.

A diversity of opinions surfaced among Associated Press readers regarding the dress code issue, with some arguing that Starbucks baristas' complaints were unwarranted, given the prevalence of dress codes in the retail sector, while others contended that Starbucks should prioritize improvements in beverage quality and pricing, alongside employee satisfaction, rather than fixating on employee attire.

Maddie Mucklow, a Starbucks store manager in Seattle, voiced her support for the newly implemented regulations.

Mucklow conceded that the revised dress code presented an initial challenge for her store's associates, but maintained that it ultimately fostered a more unified and professional environment, enabling a balance between individual expression and collective representation.

Since 2021, Starbucks Workers United has been spearheading unionization efforts across numerous U.S. Starbucks locations; however, despite a commitment to resume negotiations in February 2024, a collective bargaining agreement between Starbucks and the union remains elusive.

This week, the union announced it had lodged a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, contending that Starbucks had failed to negotiate the implementation of the new dress code.