(New York) Several thousand unionized employees of the American coffee giant Starbucks were called to strike in the United States on Thursday, the day of a vast promotional operation by the chain to mark the end-of-year holidays.

The Starbucks Workers United union, which represents more than 9,000 employees working in more than 360 of the group’s establishments in the United States, had urged them to participate in the “Red Cup rebellion” in reference to the Red Cup marketing operation. .

This operation aims to offer a reusable red cup to any customer purchasing a drink created by Starbucks for the holidays, based on pumpkin, cinnamon, spices for example. It generally leads to additional activity for employees because it boosts attendance.

“This is the Starbucks event that results in the highest sales, and also one of the most notoriously difficult days for the understaffed baristas who work that day,” the union explains on its website .

It said in a midday statement that “thousands of employees had walked out” in more than 200 U.S. cities to demand negotiations with management, particularly on personnel issues.

Starbucks owns nearly 10,000 coffee shops in the United States.

For its part, the group affirmed that “employees from less than a hundred stores (in the United States) chose to participate in the mobilization.” “But the majority of these stores are open and serving customers,” he assured.

“Despite the verbal escalation and recurring demonstrations demanding a collective agreement, Workers United has not agreed to a meeting to advance negotiations for four months,” he lamented, stressing that 20% of the profits from the fiscal year 2023 had been spent on salary increases, training and new equipment.

Furthermore, it was also Thursday that fifteen Starbucks employees contacted the New York worker protection department to complain about violations of local regulations in more than a dozen establishments, according to a document sent to the ‘AFP.

This brings to 73 the number of chain employees who have reported violations at 53 Starbucks locations in the city in 2023.

“We are making every effort and have committed significant resources to ensure that work scheduling practices comply with regulations” in New York, the group responded.