Starbucks employees at more than 100 stores are on strike during one of the chain's busiest days of the year

• Over 1,000 Starbucks workers are striking for the chain's Red Cup Day.
• Striking workers are handing out their own cups and calling for the company to bargain in good faith.

Some Starbucks workers across the US are staging a "Red Cup Rebellion" strike during the chain's iconic annual Red Cup Day promotion.

On Red Cup Day — November 17 this year — Starbucks gives customers a free reusable 16-oz cup for every eligible holiday drink order. It's a historically busy sales day, and in some years highly-trafficked stores reportedly run out of cups early in the morning.

More than 1,000 workers are on strike at 111 stores across 23 states, according to the union, Starbucks Workers United. The collective action is to protest "short staffing and the company's failure to bargain with union stores," the union said in a press release.

"We are aware that union demonstrations are scheduled at a small number of our US company-owned stores. In those locations where partners choose to participate, we respect their right to engage in lawful protest activity – though our focus has been, and continues to be, on uplifting the Starbucks experience for our partners and customers," a Starbucks spokesperson told Insider in a statement.

A total of 264 Starbucks stores in 36 states have elected to unionize since December 2021, with dozens more elections planned, according to a tracker by the pro-unionization publication More Perfect Union. It's one of the most successful union campaigns in the fast food industry, despite impacting a relatively small number of the chain's more than 9,000 US locations and roughly 70,000 US workers.

Striking workers are picketing outside Starbucks stores and giving away Starbucks Workers United-branded cups. The cups distributed by the union feature a hand that looks like the Grinch holding an ornament with the union's logo.

Workers are also giving out fliers to passersby asking them to sign an online pledge in support.

"Red Cup Day is notoriously difficult on baristas and notoriously profitable for Starbucks: striking on a day that affects both us and customers more so than an average day is a great way to connect with the community about why unions in the workplace are needed, and how they can help their local unions succeed while keeping businesses running," Emily Schule, a barista in Massachusetts, said in a press release.

Starbucks says the union is holding up bargaining.

"In those stores where partners have elected union representation, we have been willing and continue to urge the union to meet us at the bargaining table to move the process forward in good faith," the company told Insider in a statement. Starbucks has filed 22 unfair labor practices charges with the NLRB against the union.

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