EXETER TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Employees from a Starbucks in Exeter Township, along with workers from some of the Lancaster locations and community members, are joining in the national strike, often referred to as the “Red Cup Rebellion”.
“We’re just hoping for them to sign our contract. We’re hoping for change,” said Kassandra, a Starbucks barista.
“Right now, we’re striking to finalize our union contract, which it’s been about three years now and they still have yet to finalize a contract with us,” said Starbucks shift supervisor, Kara Marzec.
Marzec says some of the biggest concerns are around wages and staffing.
“A lot of these baristas that work at Starbucks aren’t even making enough hours to apply for benefits. At the same time, the average pay that a barista gets is $15.65 an hour, which just isn’t a livable wage anymore.”
She says that creates problems when it comes to running a store properly.
“We’ll have like three people running a store at a time which just isn’t a lot of baristas to run a store when you have like mobile ordering, drive through, cafe customers,” explained Marzec. “It’s just really hard to keep up with.”
“It’s not fair for the customers or us to be running floors with not enough people,” added Kassandra.
Earlier this month, Starbucks released a statement about the strike which read in part: “Our commitment to bargaining hasn’t changed. Workers United walked away from the table but if they are ready to come back, we’re ready to talk.”
“I really want to say, we’re not out here fighting because we don’t like our job. We’re out here because we want to make our job better and we want to stay at this company,” said Marzec.