Thousands of workers at organized Starbucks stores across the nation will stage strikes over the next week, their union said on Friday, a move that comes after workers in some states said management prohibited them from putting up decorations for Pride Month, accusations that the company has said are false. Starbucks Workers United said employees at more than 150 stores would strike over the company’s labor practices and its “hypocritical treatment of LGBTQIA+ workers.”The union represents about 8,000 of the company’s workers in more than 300 stores. “Starbucks is scared of the power that their queer partners hold, and they should be,” Moe Mills, who works at a Starbucks location in Richmond Heights, Mo., said in a statement provided by the union. The union said that it was striking over the changes to Pride decoration policies, which it argued must be negotiated, as well as the company’s broader response to the organizing campaign, including widespread retaliation against union supporters. The union said in its statement that workers were “demanding that Starbucks negotiate a fair contract with union stores and stop their illegal union-busting campaign.”

---

Persons: ” Moe Mills, ” Organizations: Pride, Starbucks Workers United, Starbucks Locations: Richmond Heights, Mo